For a college paper or radio station looking for a different kind of story, the Peace Corps, just offered up some great information that can be turned into some interesting stories.

The Corps, one of the best government institutions, celebrated its 50th anniversary last year. The whole purpose of the Corps is for America’s best and brightest to donate their time and knowledge to help people in other countries.

Since its inception by executive order in 1961, more than 200,000 young people have donated two years of their lives to development projects in more than 130 countries.

During my limited teaching time at George Mason, I encouraged my students to seriously consider volunteering for the Peace Corps. My reasons were pretty simple:

1. In general, the job market sucks, volunteering for the Peace Corps gives you at least two more years to gain experience and hope for a better economy.
2. Specifically, the job market for journalists sucks. Volunteering for the Peace Corps provides you with overseas’ experience and skills other journalists don’t have. That will make your job application stand out from all the others.
3. It is one of the most rewarding experiences you will ever have and you will learn things about the world and yourself you will never learn by staying in the States.
4. The world is interconnected. The more you know about the rest of the world the better you will be as a journalist and as a citizen of the world. The Peace Corps gives you experiences and knowledge of the rest of the world that no class or tourism trip can.

I should add that I am NOT a Peace Corps alum but I have met many of the volunteers in the Dominican Republic and Honduras. I have never seen such enthusiastic and idealistic young people any where else.

I noticed that George Mason is not on the list of top schools sending graduates to the Peace Corps. (Maybe that will change with time.) But for now, perhaps the Mason student media folks can look around campus to see if any seniors have signed up to join the Corps after graduation. (Then find out why and where they hope to go.)

Maybe a search could be started to see what professors or administrators have Peace Corps experience. Then find out why they joined the Corps and how their time in service helped/hindered their career choices.

Does the school have a relationship with the Peace Corps so that some course work counts toward the Peace Corps training programs? If not, why not? (Contact the Peace Corps for more information about this. More schools are doing this every year.)

Here is something to get you started with your stories:

Just this past week the Peace Corps released a list of the top colleges whose graduates have joined the Peace Corps.

For campus and local community reporters, this is a gold mine of information about links between the college and the rest of the world.

Following are the top five colleges and universities in each undergraduate category, as well as the top graduate schools and a historical ranking. The numbers in parentheses represent the number of alumni currently serving as Peace Corps volunteers.

LARGE COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES:

More than 15,000 undergraduates

• University of Colorado Boulder (112)
• University of Washington (110)
• University of Wisconsin, Madison (107)
• University of Florida (101)
• University of Michigan (97)

MEDIUM COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES:

Between 5,001 and 15,000 undergraduates

• The George Washington University (78)
• Western Washington University (73)
• American University (63)
• Cornell University (58)
• University of Vermont (42)

SMALL COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES:

Less than 5,000 undergraduates

• University of Mary Washington (29)
• Gonzaga University (26)
• Oberlin College (24)
• St. Olaf College (24)
• University of Puget Sound (22)
• The Johns Hopkins University (22)
• Lewis & Clark College (22)

GRADUATE SCHOOLS

Number of graduate alumni volunteers

• University of Florida (30)
• University of Washington (24)
• University of Denver (16)
• American University (16)
• Tulane University (16)

HISTORICALLY (SINCE 1961)

Number of alumni volunteers

• University of California, Berkeley (3,497)
• University of Wisconsin, Madison (3,000)
• University of Washington (2,738)
• University of Michigan (2,458)
• University of Colorado Boulder (2,317)

It would be nice if the University of Michigan would step up the volunteer numbers a bit. After all, the whole idea for the Peace Corps was floated by then Senator John F. Kennedy during a presidential campaign speech in October 1960.

Click here for the complete list of schools and their rankings within the Peace Corps.

Interesting piece in the Greenslade Blog at The Guardian website:

Internship exploitation – how publishers use and abuse work experience

One of the wannabe hacks, Emily Handford (aka The Intern), has discovered the perils of taking on serial internships “without a sniff of a job.”

She asks: “Have I just wasted my time, energy and money completing these internships? I enjoyed them but I never managed to nab a job whilst on the job, so to speak.”

Nor, it appears, did she make any money because she has also failed to land one of those “prized paid internships.”

Rest of story

Gee. All this sounds the same on this side of the pond as well.

BTW, Wannabe Hacks is a worthwhile site to look at as well. If for no other reason than it is a trans-Atlantic link to the problems of finding a job in journalism.

Communications Internship

Council on Foreign Relations

Location: United States (Washington, DC)

Contact Information: Human Resources

Phone: 202-509-8400

Email: humanresources@cfr.org

Council on Foreign Relations Human Resources Office

1777 F Street, NW, Washington, DC 20006

FAX (202) 509-8490

humanresources@cfr.org

INTERNSHIP OPPORTUNITY

Department: Office of Communications

Length of internship: Spring 2011

The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is an independent, nonpartisan membership organization, think tank, and publisher dedicated to being a resource for its members, government officials, business executives, journalists, educators and students, civic and religious leaders, and other interested citizens in order to help them better understand the world and the foreign policy choices facing the United States and other countries. Founded in 1921, CFR carries out its mission by maintaining a diverse membership, with special programs to promote interest and develop expertise in the next generation of foreign policy leaders; convening meetings at its headquarters in New York and in Washington, DC, and other cities where senior government officials, members of Congress, global leaders, and prominent thinkers come together with CFR members to discuss and debate major international issues; supporting a Studies Program that fosters independent research, enabling CFR scholars to produce articles, reports, and books and hold roundtables that analyze foreign policy issues and make concrete policy recommendations; publishing Foreign Affairs, the preeminent journal on international affairs and U.S. foreign policy; sponsoring Independent Task Forces that produce reports with both findings and policy prescriptions on the most important foreign policy topics; and providing up-to-date information and analysis about world events and American foreign policy on its website,CFR.org.

The Communications and Marketing department focuses on maximizing the presence of CFR in print, broadcast, and online media outlets and on promoting CFR’s roster of products, which includes on-the-record events, CFR books, Council Special Reports, Task Force reports, working papers, online publications and interactive features, and Foreign Affairs articles. The department also works to ensure that CFR experts are visible in the news media.

The responsibilities of the intern will include (but are not limited to): • Maintaining the media contact database • Fielding public inquiries about CFR and media requests for experts • Tracking and recording media mentions of CFR publications • Assisting staff at on-the-record events • Providing general administrative support • Assist with CFR’s social media presence and strategy.

Qualification:

Preferred Qualifications: • Academic major in Communications, Journalism, or International Relations • Proficiency in MS Word and Excel • Ability to multitask and work well collectively in a fast-paced environment • Good organizational skills and attention to detail

A modest stipend is offered upon completion of the internship.

Qualified candidates may email, fax, or mail their resume and cover letter INCLUDING POSITION NAME, DAYS AND TIMES AVAILABLE TO WORK to the above address. The Council on Foreign Relations is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Quality, diversity and balance are the key objectives sought by the Council on Foreign Relations in the composition of its workforce.

There is a great site called “Cub Reporters.Org” that lists not only internships but also job openings in journalism.

Granted, many of the listings are for outside the Washington, DC area. But maybe — just maybe — there might be a paid internship in a great place. (There are even some overseas listings.)

Give it a look!

Media affairs intern for the Iraqi embassy in Washington, DC.

Click here for details.