USAID’s Bureau for Legislative and Public Affairs (LPA) serves as the liaison between the Agency and the American people, Congress, media, and other key constituencies. Interning at LPA provides a broad overview of the functions of all of USAID’s bureaus.    

LPA is responsible for the Agency’s external outreach portfolio and provides overall communications coordination for all aspects of legislative and public affairs matters. LPA directs the Agency's communications strategy and policies; develops outreach and education programs; guides messaging and oversees management of the Agency’s external communications platforms including USAID.gov; provides support for USAID participation at key events to share information about the Agency's work and results; and leads the implementation and oversight of Agency branding requirements.

Interns should specify their preference to work in one of the five areas:

• Legislative Affairs: Process and transmit reports to Capitol Hill, attend Congressional hearings, research and analyze federal legislation, prepare senior USAID staff to brief and/or testify before members of Congress, outreach to members of Congress and their respective staffs.
• Press: Assist in strategic communications for large events and announcements, research and target select journalists for outreach, maintain USAID Press Twitter handles, draft and send press releases and media advisories. 
• Public Affairs: Support the Public Engagement, Content and Digital Communications Teams. Assist in strategic communications with think tanks, NGOs, and other agencies of government to advance USAID goals and initiatives; facilitate and attend events and conferences as a representative of USAID. Support external digital communications of USAID initiatives and events through online communications platforms, update the web pages, assist in managing social media accounts, including Twitter, Flickr, Facebook and Youtube, and draft social media engagement plans.
• Administrative Management: Administer and support LPA programs and priorities through program management and budget operations, a broad range of administrative management functions (human resources, administrative services, security, organizational management), and procurement and contracting efforts.
• Internal Communications: Support strategic communications of USAID priorities and initiatives as well as items of employee interest through a variety of platforms, including face-to-face, written, online, virtual and experiential, so that agency staff are a global, One USAID community.

LPA interns helping with Take Your Child to Work Day, 2016

In addition to these employment aspects, LPA interns have unique opportunities to participate in and/or assist with a variety of high-level events such as escorting members of the United Nations and former Prime Ministers to meetings with the USAID Administrator and meeting a former Nobel Peace Prize Winner.

Selection criteria:

• Be a U.S. citizen (without dual nationality)
• Be currently enrolled in a college or university
• Have a minimum grade point average of 3.0
• Be able to obtain a U.S. Government security clearance at the “Secret” level by passing a background check.
• Possess a general knowledge about U.S. Government agencies and USAID policies, excellent written and verbal communication skills, and computer proficiency.
• Be available full-time with a minimum requirement of 4 days a week, 8 hours per day.

LPA Interns at the White House

Note: Internships are unpaid and housing assistance is not provided.

Applying and timeline for the process:

LPA accepts applications from interested candidates for its Spring, Summer, and Fall internship sessions during the following application windows. Please send your cover letter (including approximate dates of availability) and resume as attachments to lpainternships@usaid.gov, and indicate the session and year for which you are applying in the subject of the email.

Note: Due to the high number of applicants, only selected intern candidates will be contacted for an interview and may be asked to submit a writing sample.