2019 Summer Internship Dohwan Kim, Political Science and International Relations at Korea University     Hello, my name is Dohwan Kim and I study Political Science and International Relations at Korea University. I was an intern at the East Asia Institute for the summer of 2019. Prior to my internship at EAI, I did not have any internship or other work experience. While I had high interest in political research, I was not familiar with the overall research process. My only exposure to political research had been reading related journal articles and note-taking during my academic classes. I had previously spent my summer taking summer courses at school.  Meanwhile, I learned about the EAI internship program through my school. I have always been interested in East Asian regional studies, and wanted to learn further about how academic discussions lead to meaningful political research. As such, I was motivated to apply to the program. I will always treasure the experiences I have had during the one-month period of my EAI internship. My main tasks at EAI involved assisting research related to Myanmar, as well as conference and event preparation. I helped organize survey results for EAI’s Strengthening Civil Society in Myanmar research program and assisted the program manager with the analysis on civil society organizations in Myanmar. I also assisted basic research for the identity project which is carried out every five years. I had taken a class on “identity politics” at school prior to the internship, which helped me to better understand the research proceedings. Furthermore, I learned about effective event preparation by assisting EAI’s various events in August such as the KF Korea Workshop, Timely Debate on Korea-Japan Relations, and the Next Generation Conference. In particular, I served as a discussant for the Next Generation Conference.  EAI is a think tank where you can meet diverse people from different backgrounds. I appreciated the time that I spent with kind researchers and dedicated interns within such a warm work setting. In considering all of the new colleagues and mentors I have met and new experiences I have gained, I can say that my month at EAI is a memory to be remembered.   

2019 Summer Internship Seowoo Chung, Political Science and International Relations at Korea University     I worked at the East Asia Institute as an intern from July 1st, 2019 to July 26th, 2019. Pursuing a career in academia and research, I decided to apply for an internship at the EAI, an independent think tank which researches and recommends policy on international issues. As a research assistant I was given the following responsibilities. I put together sample designs and classified EAI publications for the EAI Annual Report. I helped the KF Korea Workshop run smoothly, performing duties regarding event preparations, photos, publicity, event moderations, and more. I also collected and classified articles to be uploaded in the archival web page Global North Korea and designed a brochure in Korean and English for the aforementioned web page to be distributed in official EAI events. One of the best things about the internship was being able to experience firsthand how policy researches are conducted. Watching professionals work has enabled me to grasp how a think tank operates in evaluating existing policies and recommending new ones, much more so than prior to the internship. I realized that behind articles and policy recommendations exists an intellectual network that had been built through continuous effort of many individuals. I also learned that civil-level efforts such as communications between think tanks from around the world contributes to international peace through participating in cultural exchange events, academic conferences hosted by the EAI. I noticed actors unrecognized by conventional international relations theories. My internship experience has led me to really understand a possible career option as a policy researcher—I now have a better idea of what sort of work I will do and what my daily life will be like if I work in this field. I am grateful to have gained foundations from which I can build on as I continue pursuing a professional career.  

2019 Summer Internship Dong Eunsue, Political Science and International Relations at Korea University     I did my internship at the East Asia Institute for 5 weeks through the Korea University Summer course internship program. In the morning of the very first day, I talked about my interest in political science to a supervisor in charge of the internship program. I’m interested in both traditional and non-traditional security, so I supported a research associate who studies North Korea and Security. I also did various other tasks such as assessing the current EAI website and then giving some feedbacks. Along with my fellow interns, I presented to President Son and research associates in a meeting, and after the presentation, I saw significant improvement in the website. Additionally, I made a video and a proposal regarding the promotion of Global North Korea, which is an archival website of publications on North Korea launched last year. EAI holds many kinds of events. The biggest event during my internship was the ‘KF workshop’. EAI invites knowledgeable speakers to give lectures about Korean politics, industry, culture, diplomacy, etc. for three days to foreign resident students. I helped to ensure the workshop ran smoothly for all three days of lectures. It was very interesting and helpful for me, and I got to see foreign resident students asking questions in the lecture and thought it must be helpful and interesting to them. The tasks I assisted the research associates were to research, translate, and edit ‘North Korean biochemical weapons’ and to do research for the EAI public diplomacy program. I could apply skills I learned during university, and gained more knowledge on topics I was interested in. Additionally, we have a lecture session for interns every week. We listened to lectures from research associates and learned skills from our colleagues in the session. For me, a lecture “History of the Relationship between Korea and Japan” was especially interesting and impressive. I got to know more about what treaties between Korea and Japan were made after the World War Two. I worked with eight other interns at EAI as well. Each intern comes from different backgrounds so we could help one another and work in a friendly atmosphere. Every research associate was very kind and considerate of the interns. Through my first internship experience in EAI, I had an opportunity to know how an international institute works and what people there do. Specifically, I got more in-depth knowledge of current issues and state of affairs of the international society. Overall, it was good to work with good research associates and intern colleagues. 

2019 Summer Internship Julia Eunjee Kwak, Stanford University International Relations     Through my internship at the East Asia Institute, I was able to experience firsthand how a think tank operates and what sort of research projects are conducted. I became especially interested in the connections between foreign and public policy through my work with EAI's Myanmar project. As a research assistant, I worked with seven other civil society organizations in Yangon, Myanmar to gain more tangible insight on the current state of public goods development such as their water distribution, street light, and market regulation systems. Alongside professors and graduate students, I provided support on survey methodology as well as policy recommendations. One of the major projects I completed was the Myanmar Democracy Research Network Databook in which we formatted all of the data collected from the seven partner organizations to be presented formally. I found it interesting to see how EAI was modeled after a U.S. think tank, and how EAI continues this chain of influence to the other Myanmar organizations it partners with. I was also able to stay very up to date on Myanmar society by collecting daily articles to be sent to my supervisor and a weekly organization publications list of the partner organizations. The most significant contributions I made to my host organization were my grammar/writing structure editing skills, the MDRN databook as mentioned above, and event-planning for the Korea Friendship workshop series. I edited many articles, brochures, final reports, and more from each of the research associates as many of them release both Korean and English versions of their work. Additionally, I edited many final data reports/conclusions from each of the seven Myanmar organizations for grammar mistakes, sentence structure, and conciseness. The second contribution I made was being in charge of the MDRN databook, in which we formatted each of the data graphs, tables, and slides from every question the survey included. The surveys were released by the seven partner organizations and there were over 100 questions/data sets we had to format. I believe that the Myanmar civil society organizations will continue to use this as both a reference and a means of presentation. Finally, all of the interns were a large part of making sure the Korea Friendship workshops ran smoothly. We were in charge of contacting speakers, foreign residents living in Korea who would attend, and foreign exchange university students living in Korea as well. We also made sure the weekend trip to the DMZ was well organized, and set up the event each time we had a workshop. There were over 40 attendees, and we also got to learn a lot about Korean culture, politics, and society through the speakers' lectures. Now that I have reached the end of my internship, looking back on these past two months has made me realize how much I have learned and accomplished. One of my goals before I started was to make sure I would be able to tell a friend or classmate about at least two relevant domestic/international issues. Through the Japan-South Korea situation, I really got to see how politically active Korean citizens are through protests and events. Additionally, it was really interesting to learn the diverse range of opinions people have regarding Trump opening up diplomatic relations with North Korea. Furthermore, another one of my goals was to sit in on at least two public policy conferences and engage with the material. Through the Korea Friendship workshops, I was able to attend lectures done by university professors from Yonsei, Seoul National University, and even CEOs of different companies. It was very interesting and insightful, and I really enjoyed discussing our thoughts later with my fellow interns and supervisors. Through my EAI internship I have gained so much academically and personally. I am very grateful for the experiences I had with my mentors and fellow interns, and I hope to take and apply all the lessons I have learned as I continue to pursue my career in international relations.  

2019 Summer Internship Marco Roncato, Yonsei Graduate School of International Studies      I am Marco Roncato, Italian graduate student at Yonsei Graduate School of International Studies, majoring in International Cooperation with the focus on International Organization and Law. I took part as intern of East Asia Institute for 10 weeks in the Summer of 2019, applying through the Career Development Center of Yonsei GSIS.   During the entire length of my internship I mainly took part in KF Korea Friendship Workshop Project, in which I got the chance to participate in most part of its development process. When I first arrived, I helped promoting the first workshop by contacting the numerous Embassies in Seoul and prepare the list of applicants. After the selection of the participants, we had to contact them individually by phone and email to confirm their participation to the events day by day. During the first workshop I also got the chance to help organizing the two field trips and in particular the overnight trip to Goseong DMZ. In August too I was immersed in the organization of the second KF-EAI Workshop, which was developed similarly to the first one, except the presence of the Next Generation Conference instead of the field trips. I helped preparing nametags and the participation certificates from scratch and managed the registration desk during both workshops.   I got the chance to do some research as well for the Myanmar Project and some small research for ADRN. I wish I could have had the chance to experience more of EAI’s work and projects to increase my knowledge and abilities, but I am sure the skills that I learned and put in practice during my internship will definitely come useful. Especially, I am thankful to have took part in the preparation of an event as well as the skills in handling people that take part in the events with discretion.   I am very thankful to all the researchers that guided me in this first working experience of mine, and I will always remember all the advices that they gave me for my future. Thank you, East Asia Institute for this great opportunity and I hope I will get the chance to be part of this amazing network once again.   Marco Roncato.

2019 Summer Internship Chanho Lim, Political Science and International Relations at Korea University     •Motivation and Goals The East Asia Institute is an independent think tank on politics and diplomacy, and is conducting active research in international politics, comparative politics, and other areas of political diplomacy. They are publishing various comments and holding events such as a city forum. I was inspired by my interest in international politics in the class, and I have since studied international politics by taking international political subjects such as , , and . While attending school, I wondered how experts in politics and diplomacy actually use their knowledge of politics and diplomacy, including international politics. I participated in the 2019 Summer Seasonal Internship Program, the East Asia Institute, for the purpose of exploring how political and diplomatic knowledge is utilized and experiencing social life.   •Internship ① I was in charge of creating a time line on the recent issue of Korea-Japan export regulations. I helped research associate Kim Se-young gather articles from major media companies (Joseon, Joongang, Kyunghyang and Hankyoreh) by date, and I arranged the positions of Japan, Korea, and major journals. When I was first assigned to work, my former intern sorted out the volume by early August and take on other tasks, so I try to catch up with the backlog. I worked quickly and intensively to catch up on all the dates in a few days, and then Ms. Kim held a Korea-Japan export control timeline meeting with me and Joel. He has decided to run an English article, I have decided to run a Korean article, and I looked for a factual article in the JoongAng Ilbo for a Korean article, while compiling an article with more diverse perspectives from other media outlets. During my internship, I collected and organized articles on Korean literature. ② I supported The Korea Foundation(KF) Korea WorkShop 2 and a discussion forum "Korea-Japan Relations, Where Are We Headed?" In addition to the basic event support, I was also responsible for the summary of lectures. I took Professor Son Yeol's "Korea's Diplomacy 2019" lecture and summed it up. ③ I promoted Korea Foundation (KF) Korea WorkShop 2 and a discussion forum "Korea-Japan Relations, Where Are We Headed?" (telephone to the school administration office, post promotional messages to the school community, etc.). Related to the discussion forum, I organized major university PR lists into Excel files and created basic school promotional materials. ④ I edit comments posted on the website of the East Asia Institute. ⑤ I attended an internship seminar and took a special lecture on Korea-Japan relations and an Excel special lecture, etc. ⑥ I did organizing other paperwork, etc.   •Differences before and after Internship ① Applying Knowledges to Practice Before the practice, I did not know how my major knowledge I had learned at school was applied. The learning process was fun, but I still wondered how the knowledge I learned in class was used. As an intern at the East Asia Institute, I was able to understand the usage of my major knowledge. When writing comments on North Korean issues and other topics of political diplomacy, I could see that international politics and other knowledge of my majors are applied in a very important way. My major knowledge was helpful when arranging Korea and Japan’s domestic political situations and positions of major countries, such as the United States, in producing a Korea-Japan export control timeline. I think the experience of checking the application of the major knowledge in the institute will be of great help in the future when continuing to study.   ② First Work Experience I spent most of my time in school and had little experience in social life. I had no experience as an intern in Korea. My experience as an intern at the East Asia Institute was the moment when I took my first step in society. I owe a lot to researchers who are always caring and welcoming to interns. I was also encouraged to look at my great intern colleagues from the side. Internship experience was a time to acquire the knowledge and experience necessary for my future career.

2019 Summer Internship Valentina Popova, Yonsei Graduate School of International Studies       My internship at EAI started right before a big for organization event, called KF Korea Workshop. It was my first time working not with but for a Korean organization, so the learning process for me started right away and was very informative. I was lucky to participate not only in KF Korea Workshop but also in other different kinds of events EAI hosted this summer, tried my best in helping EAI researchers if they had any requests or tasks, learnt how to work in international team. All these gave me an idea of how research tank operates in Korea and whether a research tank similar organization is exactly the place where I want to work afterwards. Dreaming of becoming a researcher in the future, EAI showed me that if you are seeking not only for academic but also for professional growth, research tank could be just the best option for you to start a researcher’s career. Now I have a better idea of my skills, my abilities, my desires and my goals. However, having said all that, I want to add that more than anything else in career and life experiences I have always valued people and network I can establish. EAI became a place for me where I could meet not only good and nice people but also find good friends. They say the working environment is a huge part of your proficient work and future success. Researchers and managers at EAI are professionals who know exactly what and how it should be done professionally and efficiently. I appreciate researchers for spending these two months with us, teaching us, helping us out.    

2019 Summer Internship Jaeyoung Kim, Government and East Asia Studies at Harvard University     Hello, my name is Jaeyoung Kim and I currently study Government and East Asian Studies at Harvard College. I first learned about the East Asia Institute (EAI) while writing a paper about the Yasukuni Shrine for Prof. Susan Pharr last fall semester. I cited the EAI's Korea-Japan Public Opinion Survey that it conducts with Genron-NPO of Japan, and a few months after that, I decided to apply for an independent internship position here at the EAI under Harvard College's Weissman Program (https://ocs.fas.harvard.edu/Weissman-International-Internship-Program-Grant). I moved abroad from Korea when I was young, so I was afraid to a certain extent because I lacked professional experience and a tight social network that I could rely on here in Korea. However, the research associates and my fellow interns made my experience such a memorable one, and thanks to them I spent a summer that I can probably never forget. I'll always remember the lunches we had together and the nights that us interns spent out after work. During the nine weeks that I stayed here, I assisted pretty much everyone, but I think I helped out with the ADRN project the most. The ADRN stands for Asia Democracy Research Network and is a project seeking to research governance and best practices for democracy with other leading think tanks in the region. Within ADRN, I mostly assisted research on populism and a study on fake news/disinformation. I was able to partake in other projects as well. Another memorable project of mine that I participated in was the KF Korea Friendship Workshop. The project, co-hosted with the Korea Foundation, is a workshop mainly for foreigners residing in Korea with lectures on Korean studies, essay competitions, and other events. Through this, I was able to visit the Unification Observatory at Goseong, Gangwon Province with my fellow interns; it was especially meaning for me as this was my first time visiting Goseong in about 15 years since I last visited as a little child with my parents, so I was able to reflect a lot on this trip. I want to express my sincerest appreciation to everyone in the office for letting me experience a diverse range of projects that the EAI conducts. I had a very fruitful and enjoyable time here, and I'll make sure to apply the things that I learned here well into my studies back in school.   Thank you.