Going global for government

You won’t find Kimberly Bonner ’08 in Medford, N.J., her home listed on the TigerNet alumni directory. Bonner is stationed in Tanzania, waging a war against mosquitoes.

Bonner is one of the five inaugural undergraduate recipients of the Scholars in the Nation’s Service Initiative (SINSI) scholarship. The program places Princeton graduates in federal government jobs for two years and funds their two-year Master in Public Affairs (MPA) degrees at the Wilson School. The inaugural class went directly to government jobs after graduating, while subsequent scholars will follow an alternate sequence, completing the first year of their MPA, two years of work in the federal government and then the last year of their MPA.

Bonner and two of the other scholars — Jordan Reimer ’08 and Eugene Yi ’08 — said that their first years as SINSI scholars have been simultaneously surprising and rewarding.

After graduating with a degree in molecular biology, Bonner joined the President’s Malaria Initiative, a joint program implemented by the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Through the initiative, Bonner worked with the Ministry of Health in Tanzania to aid in distributing mosquito nets.

“As a student at Princeton, I became very interested in issues surrounding health, especially in developing countries,” Bonner said in an e-mail. “While at Princeton, I learned about the global impact of malaria for the first time. I was shocked that malaria kills 1 million people a year, mostly children under 5 and pregnant women.”

Yi is currently working for the political section of the U.S. embassy in Beijing, China, investigating Internet freedom issues and analyzing the effect of news media on China’s political landscape. He also travels throughout China to understand regional and domestic political issues.

“My interests in foreign policy that led me to being a Woodrow Wilson School major have also guided my choices in working for the federal government,” Yi said in an e-mail.

Reimer works for the Department of Defense on issues concerning the Middle East, policy planning and public affairs. He said he hoped to work in the Middle East, though he has not been posted abroad.

“I had already worked at the State Department for one summer, and then Princeton connected me to the Department of Defense,” Reimer said.

“There was the option to go to the Middle East, so I decided to come on board for the Defense Department, but it’s not necessarily [where] you’d first think to go to for foreign policy,” he added.

Reimer noted, however, that he was dissatisfied with some of the constraints imposed on interns working in the federal government. Though he originally wanted to complete one year with the Defense Department and work abroad his second year, administrative logistics prevented him from doing so.

“I wanted to go abroad, but it didn’t work out,” Reimer said. “I thought we were only locked in for one year, but we’re locked in for two years where we signed up for, which makes sense from an administration standpoint.”

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Reimer added that bureaucratic complications were part of life as a SINSI scholar working for a short stint in government.

“That’s the tradeoff you get with coming on to the program for two years,” he said.

The other scholars also noted that, as the first-ever scholarship recipients, they were unsure what to expect following graduation.

Bonner said that she thought she would be working in Washington, D.C., when she initially applied to SINSI.

“The opportunity to live in Tanzania for two years has been an unexpected windfall,” she added.

Yi characterized the logistics of the program as “surprising and problematic at the same time.” But he added that he has been pleased with his assignments.

“The specific portfolios I’ve had the opportunity to work on have been unexpectedly exciting and fun,” he said.

The scholars agreed that, despite some difficulties, the scholarship has given them opportunity to gain invaluable experience working in the government.

“I’m working on foreign policy experiments, I learn about the government, and I don’t have to apply for a job,” Reimer said.

“So far,” Bonner said, “this has been an incredible experience. The work that I am doing exactly matches what I am passionate about.”

But because of its flexibility, Yi said that the program experience varies among scholars.

“The best aspect of this program is that it is flexible to your interests and needs. I found that the program is truly what you make of it,” he explained.