The MIT Washington Summer Internship Program provided me with the opportunity to live the DC life at its fullest. As an intern at the International Finance Corporation (IFC), one of the organizations that comprise the World Bank Group, I worked with some of the brightest economists and political scientists I’ve met. It was incredibly rewarding to be surrounded by people who are passionate about causing a positive change in the developing world.

At the IFC, I worked with the Innovation, Technology and Entrepreneurship team in two different projects. The first one focused on the cognitive and non-cognitive skills that can be causally related to an individual’s decision to become an entrepreneur. The second project aimed at identifying development, regulatory and political indicators and analyzing how they interacted with each other before affecting country-level entrepreneurship levels. Not only did I have the chance to apply and improve the analytical skills I had been taught in Political Science classes, but I also learned immensely every single time I talked to my supervisors.

Life outside work was also a typical DC experience. The city is excellent for historical tourism and walks around the monuments, besides having a very international and culturally rich population. Meeting new people in DC is much easier than anywhere else – people in DC are always willing to network and to introduce you to relevant contacts.

The MIT Washington Program was crucial in every step of the process of having such an amazing experience in DC. The program helped us from contacting possible employers to making sure our internships were going well. It also offered exclusive MIT-UVA seminars with some of the key policy makers in the U.S. I highly recommend this program to anyone who wants to understand policy from an insider’s perspective and use such knowledge to make a difference.