The Virtual Student Federal Service (VSFS), formerly known as the Virtual Student Foreign Service, is a U.S. Department of State program that offers opportunities for American college and university students to virtually intern at U.S. federal agencies. There are over 500 opportunities available at 33 federal agencies, and many of the opportunities are looking for more than one intern. Interns can be enrolled in a class or classes at any tertiary institution, but they must be American citizens. All work is virtual, and background clearances are not required. These opportunities are unpaid, but offer work experience, sometimes involving foreign languages.
The Virtual Student Federal Service was announced by United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in May 2009 [1] as one of several programs in Clinton’s 21st Century Statecraft initiative. Twenty-first Century Statecraft is defined as, “[t]he complementing of traditional foreign policy tools with newly innovated and adapted instruments of statecraft that fully leverage the networks, technologies, and demographics of our interconnected world.” [2] VSFS partners with U.S. diplomatic posts overseas and State Department, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), NASA, and many other federal agencies to provide virtual internship opportunities.
The first virtual internship year coincided with the 2009–2010 academic year.
Internships begin in the Fall and end in the Spring, with an application open period in July. Students commit for the academic year, contributing 10 hours a week for the virtual internship. Students communicate with their supervisors often through email, telephone, and Skype. The nature of work varies depending on what the agency needs. The work may be research-based, where the student is required to contribute to reports on issues such as economics, the environment, and human rights, or the work may be technology-focused, such as creating blogs and producing electronic journals. Language skills are sometimes required.
The competitive process starts with students applying through the USAJobs.gov website. In the application, students may choose from a list of available projects, selecting three in their order of preference. e-Interns must be U.S. citizens.
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a federally funded research and development center and NASA field center in the city of La Cañada Flintridge, with a Pasadena mailing address, in California, United States.
The United States Department of State (DOS), commonly referred to as the State Department, is a federal executive department responsible for carrying out U.S. foreign policy and international relations. Established in 1789 as the nation's first executive department, its duties include advising the President of the United States, administering the nation's diplomatic missions, negotiating treaties and agreements with foreign entities, and representing the U.S. at the United Nations.
An internship is a period of work experience offered by an organization for a limited period of time. Once confined to medical graduates, internship is used for a wide range of placements in businesses, non-profit organizations and government agencies. They are typically undertaken by students and graduates looking to gain relevant skills and experience in a particular field. Employers benefit from these placements because they often recruit employees from their best interns, who have known capabilities, thus saving time and money in the long run. Internships are usually arranged by third-party organizations that recruit interns on behalf of industry groups. Rules vary from country to country about when interns should be regarded as employees. The system can be open to exploitation by unscrupulous employers.
A Foreign Service Officer (FSO) is a commissioned member of the United States Foreign Service. Foreign Service Officers formulate and implement the foreign policy of the United States. FSOs spend most of their careers overseas as members of U.S. embassies, consulates, and other diplomatic missions, though some receive assignments to serve at combatant commands, Congress, and educational institutions such as the various U.S. War Colleges.
GLIFAA is the officially recognized organization representing lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender etc. (LGBT+) personnel and their families in the United States Department of State, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Foreign Commercial Service, Foreign Agricultural Service, and other agencies and entities working in foreign affairs in the U.S. Government. The acronym comes from its original name, Gays and Lesbians in Foreign Affairs Agencies. As of 2014, the organization goes by GLIFAA and uses the slogan "LGBT+ pride in foreign affairs agencies" to underscore its inclusive composition. GLIFAA was founded in 1992 by fewer than a dozen employees who faced official harassment and potential loss of their jobs simply because of their sexual orientation. The organization has grown to hundreds of Foreign Service, Civil Service, and contract personnel and their families serving in Washington, throughout the U.S., and at U.S. embassies and missions around the world. Members also include retirees and straight allies in government agencies, while other supporters are affiliate members.
The Presidential Management Fellows (PMF) Program is a two-year training and leadership development program at a United States government agency, administered by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM), for U.S. citizens with a recent graduate degree. After completing the program, agencies may convert PMFs to permanent federal civilian employees.
The Office of eDiplomacy is an applied technology think tank for the United States Department of State. The Office of eDiplomacy is staffed by Foreign and Civil Service Officers, as well as contract professionals. There are three branches, the Diplomatic Innovation Division, the Knowledge Leadership Division and the Customer Liaison Division.
The Office of Inspector General for the Department of State (OIG) is an independent office within the U.S. Department of State with a primary responsibility to prevent and detect waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement. OIG inspects more than 270 embassies, diplomatic posts, and international broadcasting installations throughout the world to determine whether policy goals are being achieved and whether the interests of the United States are being represented and advanced effectively.
Transformational Diplomacy is a diplomacy initiative championed by former United States secretary of state Condoleezza Rice for reinvigorating American Foreign Policy and the United States Foreign Service.
The Rosenberg/Humphrey Program in Public Policy is a fellowship program out of the City College of New York. The fellowship offers admitted students a stipend to complete summer internships of their choosing, either in Washington D.C. or New York City. The fellowships are intended to be policy centered.
Senegal–United States relations are bilateral relations between Senegal and the United States.
The State Farm Research and Development Center opened in January 2005 at the University of Illinois’ Research Park. State Farm has been involved in academic programming, student assistance and research at U of I for over 35 years, but this facility allows for a captive audience of college interns working on projects to benefit the company as a whole, while students get to apply what they learn in class to real business problems.
Jared Andrew Cohen is an American businessman currently serving as the CEO of Jigsaw and an Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. Previously, he served as a member of the Secretary of State's Policy Planning Staff and as an advisor to Condoleezza Rice and later Hillary Clinton. Initially brought in by Condoleezza Rice as a member of the Policy Planning Staff, he was one of a few staffers that stayed under Hillary Clinton. In this capacity, he focused on counter-terrorism, counter-radicalization, Middle East/South Asia, Internet freedom, and fostering opposition in repressive countries.
Rajiv "Raj" Shah, is the President of the Rockefeller Foundation. He is a former American government official, physician and health economist who served as the 16th Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) from 2010–2015.
The Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review (QDDR) is a study by the United States Department of State, first started in 2009 and intended to be done every four years, that analyzes the short-, medium-, and long-term blueprint for the United States' diplomatic and development efforts abroad. It seeks to plan on a longer-term basis than the usual year-to-year, appropriations-based practice, and to integrate diplomacy and development missions under one planning process. It similarly seeks to correlate the department’s missions with its capacities and identify shortfalls in resourcing. Finally, it is also a precursor to core institutional reforms and corrective changes. The first such review was completed as year 2010 drew to a close. A second such review began being conducted during 2014 and was released in April 2015.
Cultural Vistas is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization that facilitates internships and professional exchange programs and services for visitors coming to the U.S., and American students and professionals seeking experiential learning opportunities abroad. The organization is headquartered in New York City, with regional offices located in Berlin, and Washington, D.C..
A virtual internship is a work experience program where the participant (intern) gains experience while working in a remote professional setting and is not physically present at the job location.
Cyber-diplomacy is the evolution of public diplomacy to include and use the new platforms of communication in the 21st century. As explained by Jan Melissen in The New Public Diplomacy: Soft Power in International Relations, cyber-diplomacy “links the impact of innovations in communication and information technology to diplomacy.” Cyber-diplomacy is also known as or is part of public diplomacy 2.0, EDiplomacy, and virtual diplomacy. Cyber-diplomacy has as its underpinnings that, “it recognizes that new communication technologies offer new opportunities to interact with a wider public by adopting a network approach and making the most of an increasingly multicentric global, interdependent system.”
Government crowdsourcing is a form of crowdsourcing employed by governments to better leverage the collective knowledge and experience of their people by tapping into their ability to see connections, understand issues, and coordinate action. It has tended to take the form of public feedback, project development, or petitions in the past, but has grown to include public drafting of bills and constitutions, among other things. This form of public involvement in the governing process differs from older systems of popular action, from town halls to referenda, in that it is primarily conducted online or through a similar IT medium.
The Bureau of Human Resources (HR) is an agency in the United States Department of State. The bureau is under the purview of the Under Secretary of State for Management. The bureau handles recruitment, assignment evaluation, promotion, discipline, career development, and retirement policies and programs for the State Department's Foreign Service and Civil Service employees. The bureau also administers the Foreign Service Written Examination and Oral Assessment, publishes State Magazine, and coordinates the State Department's Student Internship Program, Virtual Student Federal Service (VSFS), and Pathways Internships.