Georgia Tech Launches Semester in D.C. for Students to Explore Career in Public Service

Posted October 27, 2022

Georgia Tech is launching GT@DC, a fully immersive, semester-long experience in Washington, D.C. available to the entire undergraduate community at Georgia Tech. 

Led by a partnership between the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs (INTA) and the School of Public Policy (SPP), it will offer a “pathways to policy” program of courses, internships, research opportunities, and extra-curricular activities. 

“Georgia Tech students seek to develop and apply their skills and therefore need exposure beyond the classroom and beyond Atlanta. They want opportunities to work in or for government agencies, NGOs, global consulting firms, and commercial enterprises that are based or have key locations in Washington, D.C.,” says Mark Zachary Taylor, associate professor and associate chair of the School of Public Policy in the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts. “It will thereby create a critical bridge between Georgia Tech’s interests and its collective skillsets.” 

Students will enroll in a full academic course load that fulfills degree requirements, consisting of six academic credit hours for two classes, and six professional internship or audit credit hours. Applications are now being accepted for Fall 2023. 

GT@DC provides an opportunity for Georgia Tech students to become connected with important networks of policy and practice in Washington, D.C. Students can create a strong and enduring network outside Atlanta, gain valuable work experience, integrate scholarly and policy dimensions into their program of study, and explore public service as a possible career path. 

“After years of planning, I'm very excited about this initiative moving forward and being able to give students a meaningful and valuable experience in Washington, D.C. that will set up them up for a successful career,” says Lawrence Rubin, associate professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs. 

“The ultimate goal of this program is to produce a cohort of Georgia Tech alumni who have created a strong and enduring connection to our Nation’s capital, gained valuable work experience, integrated policy dimensions to their program of study, and now consider public service as a possible career path,” says Cassidy R. Sugimoto, Tom and Marie Patton School Chair and professor of Public Policy. 

Through their internships, students can work with government agencies, NGOs, global consulting firms, and commercial enterprises in Washington D.C. Through their courses, students will learn how politics and policy work. Students also will have the opportunity to participate in extracurricular activities to learn more about Washington, D.C. 

“Georgia Tech already provides a unique spectrum of expertise across a range of applied domestic and global issues coupled with an entrepreneurial focus on problem solving. By creating a site for education and research in Washington, D.C., GT@DC will provide an opportunity for GT students and faculty to better connect into the important networks of policy and practice in D.C. and for Georgia Tech to amplify our impact at the federal level,” says Robert Knotts, executive director of federal relations at Georgia Tech. 

For more information on GT@DC or to apply, visit https://pathways2policy.gatech.edu/