My name is Benjamin Roach, and I spent last semester (Fall 2023) participating in the SLU Partner Program that St. Lawrence has with The Washington Center.  

For some background, The Washington Center for Internships and Academic Seminars, as is its full name, was founded in 1975 by William (Bill) M. Burke and his wife, Sheila McRevey Burke.   

According to their official website,   

“The Washington Center provides immersive internships and academic seminars to students from hundreds of colleges and universities and young professionals from across the U.S. and more than twenty-five countries” 

This same idea is something that in my time with The Washington Center, I saw the significance of. I was able to meet so many great people from all across the U.S. and even some from around the world, that became very close friends of mine. It was great being able to experience a different perspective on the world from each and every one of them. Many of them, I still am in close touch with to this day! 

They also describe themselves as,  

“As the largest, most established program of our kind, we have 90 dedicated, full-time staff and more than 600 higher education, corporate, government, foundation, and internship host partners. We are independent, not-for-profit, and committed to providing transformative educational experiences that change lives”.  

I personally participated in their Academic Internship Program. The AIP allows students the opportunity for an internship in Washington D.C. or the surrounding areas that will allow them to grow their professional network all the while gaining crucial workplace skills. In addition to this, students in this program also take an evening course taught by a professor with a plethora of experience in professional fields related to the topic of the class, as well as higher education in general. Last but certainly not least, the third aspect of the AIP is the career readiness program that TWC offers. These are a series of programs that include but are not limited to guest speaker talks, videos detailing certain professional skills, and programming walked through by TWC advisors going into depth about marketing yourself in the professional world.   

St. Lawrence University offers four full credits for the semester abroad through The Washington Center. If you are a government major, you also have the opportunity for at least one government credit through the program as well.   

While the application deadline for the next academic year of study abroad has passed, if you or someone you know are potentially interested in this program for a future academic semester, feel free to reach out to me at bsroac21@stlawu.edu.