Meet Andrew Graf, an SIS senior majoring in Environmental and Sustainability Studies with a concentration in Environmental Policy. Read more on his internship with with the Department of State and how it's preparing him for the future.
Where did you intern, and what was your role?
I interned within the Department of State, Under Secretary for Management (M), Administration (A), Office of Overseas Employment (OA). I worked with people from different micro-offices like compensation, retirement, knowledge management, classification, and policy coordination. My role included completing projects pertaining to these different micro-offices like local compensation plan cataloging with information gathered on Papaya.com Termination information, notice, severance pay, probationary period, severance plan, severance plan date, separation notice duration, separation notice date, laws, pay scales, if a law/code may conflict with US law, and if certain practices are considered explicit or permissive within an Excel spreadsheet.
What were your main responsibilities?
Throughout my internship, I would be assigned to first complete online training. These training sessions would enhance my understanding of projects. These training included, but aren’t limited to merit based compensation (MBC), which covered items like recruiting, substitution of education/experience, training grades, understanding vacancy announcements, and policies on sign-on bonuses. Other items included work on deferred resignation program (DERP), section 508 accessibility law for the State Department, Vyond video making. Throughout the internship, I would first complete online training and one-on-one guidance with the specialist for a project, then have the project broken into steps where they would be reviewed and ultimately submitted together.
How did you find this internship opportunity?
During the summer, I was looking through USA.jobs and came upon a listing for the State Department internship opportunity. I completed the form and didn’t think anything about it, even forgetting about it, but got an acceptance letter later in August.
What was a typical day like during your internship?
Each day when I walk into the office, I start my day by looking over any emails, either from my office superintendents or from the student internship program coordinator. Superintendent emails would mainly ask about upcoming projects and my progress on current ones. Student internship program coordinator emails would list opportunities for the following week. An example for the following week is hearing about the State Department Press Bullpen. Throughout the day, I will try to work on one major project if I’m interested in it and want to get it done, or if it is something tedious, have the project stretch throughout the week, while still keeping it within its due date.
What skills did you gain or improve during your internship?
I gained experiences such as reorganizing the online office filing system to include more up-to-date information, along with working on internal and external meetings for my office and for public open access using Vyond, but the same skills can be transferred to Canva, Adobe Photoshop, PowerBi, and ArcGIS.
Did you face any challenges, and how did you overcome them?
During the first few weeks, due to the government back-to-work initiative not yet being lifted, I was alone. This wasn’t the best experience that I would have wanted due to limited dialogue with my coworkers and having to travel to the main building 10 minutes away just to interact with other people. I overcame this challenge simply by waiting for the return to work initiative to take place, allowing me to meet with who I would be working with for the next few weeks.
What was the most valuable thing you learned?
I learned that you need to be actively engaged within your job. While the internship may have a set parameter of what to expect from the workload to activities and other items, certain work, activities, and other items may fall through the cracks if you aren’t diligent enough and have good time management skills.
How did your coursework help you succeed in your internship?
For my environmental policy coursework, it didn’t really have an effect on this internship due to different each being separate subjects, but due to me taking some of the free Foreign Service Institute (FSI) courses on hazardous materials, wastewater management, and others that were more closely aligned to my environmental degree, this allowed me to have some background knowledge for some environmental policy classes that I currently am taking now, and possibly for the future as well.
How has this internship influenced your career goals?
This internship has influenced my career goals as it showed me that the State Department offers positions within environmental fields that I’m currently interested in. It also introduced me to the Foreign Service Exam, of which I’m interested in taking to be better prepared to enter the State Department if I would like down the road.
What advice would you give to other students looking for internships?
Apply to any internship. Internships may require that you have a specific degree or qualifications, but in essence, they are looking for skills that you have built up over the years, and of which can be tuned to other professions in the future.
Would you recommend this internship to others? Why or why not?
Yes. While the process of applying, getting your documentation in proper order and securing your security clearance can be a tedious and everwinding journey, you will make it out to the other end if you put in the work and also understand that the government runs slowly and can have some hiccups along the way. This internship also offered me to talk to leading individuals within my own degree sphere, while also engaging with individuals from other lines of work of which I may be interested in the future of pursuing.
Did this experience open any new opportunities for you?
While not offering any new opportunities outright, I have been able to make connections to individuals that I would never be able to, and provided examples of my work and my determination and personality. These traits are what will stick to them when they know of an open position in the future and for me to know who to reach out to.
What was the most exciting or rewarding moment during your internship?
My most exciting moment of my internship would have to be seeing all the different work that I’ve completed being used by higher ups for other projects and as references. This shows that they trusted me completing the task, even with me making some mistakes here-and-there, and also allowing me to get a feel for what kind of work they really do behind closed-doors.
Did you work on any special projects or with any inspiring mentors?
While there weren’t any special projects, I was given multiple projects throughout the internship, all of which touched on different areas within the office, and offered me some guidance on the general idea of government “organized-chaos”. There may not be a set timeline for a task or it may be moved up and down, but essentially, it will get its way down the assembly line and into the hands of who needs it.
If you could sum up your internship experience in one word, what would it be and why?
In one word, I would have to choose, as mentioned in the previous question, “organized-chaos”. This is due to tasks having their completion dates constantly moved around, and new items needing to be added or deleted. There is a process; you just need to learn it.
July 09, 2025