Six juniors win SINSI fellowships

Six members of the Class of 2009 have won Scholars in the Nation's Service Initiative (SINSI) fellowships, enabling them to spend time working for the federal government before returning to the University to earn a Masters in Public Policy (MPA) degree from the Wilson School.

The juniors — Cyndi Barmore, Shannon Brink, Michael Konialian, Emily Norris, Michael Shapiro and Brendan Reilly — were notified of their selection last month and are the second group of undergraduates to be accepted into the program. They join five members of the Class of 2008, who were awarded SINSI fellowships last year.

The Robertson Foundation will formally approve the selected scholars at a board meeting this spring. The Wilson School has not yet publicly announced the names of the winners.

Barmore, Brink, Norris and Shapiro are Wilson School majors. Konialian is concentrating in mechanical and aerospace engineering and pursuing a Wilson School certificate. Reilly is a politics major.

Undergraduate SINSI scholars are expected to spend the summer after their junior year interning in the federal government. After graduation, they will work for the government for two years before returning to the University to complete a two-year MPA.

The Wilson School fully funds both the internship and the MPA degree, and it may partially fund the two-year full-time job at the government.

Konialian said in an interview that he was excited by the fellowship. "I'm looking forward to the types of opportunities I'll have to work in the federal government," he said. "It should be fun."

Konialian is considering working on the Hill for a Congressional committee or California representative. "If I don't do that, I might work in the State Department," he said, adding that he is interested in environmental policy, as well as weapons of mass destruction and counter-terrorism.

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Brink said she is concerned about her opportunities for internships this summer because she is studying abroad in Santiago, Chile, until July. Though she hopes to be even more fluent in Spanish after being abroad, Brink said, "my options [for internships] are pretty limited" because she will not be back until halfway through the summer.

Both stressed the support given by the SINSI program administrators as important factors for applying. "I like the program because they give us a lot of feedback," Konialian said, adding that he is fond of the Wilson School's strength in science policy and foreign relations.

Brink said she had "always been strongly considering working for the government," and that the administrators "place scholars in jobs that really fit their interests." She added, "It's like having a second or third advocate for you in the job market."

Though Brink, who is from Denver, Colo., is hesitant about staying in Princeton for the two-year MPA program, she "finally decided that it's a great option," adding that she is "excited about all the econ training and quantitative stuff that we don't get a lot of in the undergraduate program."