The Washington Leadership Program

Now Accepting Applicants for the 2012 Washington Leadership Program

The Washington Leadership Program (WLP) is pleased to announce that it is accepting applications from high-potential South Asian college students for the 2012 summer leadership program scheduled to take place from June 9, 2012 to August 3, 2012. The WLP cultivates the South Asian American community's next generation of leaders by placing them in Congressional offices or Government Agencies for eight-week summer internships and a structured leadership-training curriculum.  The students gain a firsthand view of the policy-making and legislative process, as well as gain access to high-profile South-Asian leaders in the nation's capitol. Applications are available online at http://www.thewlp.com/wlp-2012-application.html. The deadline for submitting applications is January 20, 2012.

All students who are either US citizens or legal permanent residents are encouraged to apply. Selection to the WLP is highly competitive and not limited to students pursuing majors in social sciences. The backgrounds of past participants have ranged from medical school to art and business.

Interns will receive a total stipend of $1,500 and will be required to complete 2-3 short writing assignments during the internship.

The WLP has over 180 alumni who have interned for notable elected officials including Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY), Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ), Sen. Bill Frist (R-TN), and Rep. Bobby Jindal (R-LA). Alumni from the program have gone on to win Rhodes, Marshall, Fulbright, and Mitchell Scholarships, as well as acceptances into top-flight medical, law, public policy, and other post-graduate programs. Several alums are currently senior advisors to government officials, and one is an elected representative from the State of Maryland. 

The original program built  a strong reputation on both the Hill and in the community and continues to receive favorable reviews from former participants.  Former House Democratic Leader Dick Gephardt (D-MO) called the WLP "the best program of its kind on the Hill."  The program has continued to receive generous support from alumni, the community-at-large, and community organizations and corporations. 

For more information about the program, visit the WLP's website at www.thewlp.com

WLP Alumni Profile – Jimmy Soni, Class of 2004

WLP alum (’04) Jimmy Soni is currently a strategy consultant at McKinsey and Company, where he has focused primarily on healthcare and education sector clients.

Jimmy graduated from Duke in 2007, where he studied on an academic merit scholarship called the University Scholarship. The University Scholarship is awarded to students who display academic promise and an interdisciplinary set of interests. At Duke, Jimmy was a campus leader and column writer, among other activities, and received both the William J. Griffith University Service Award for his campus work and the Newhouse Prize from the Asian-American Journalists’ Association for his column writing.

In 2007, Jimmy was named a 2007 George J. Mitchell scholar, which sent him to Ireland for a year to study politics. The George Mitchell scholarship was named in honor of former US Senator George Mitchell’s pivotal contribution to the Northern Ireland peace process, and was designed to introduce and connect generations of future American leaders to the island of Ireland, while recognizing and fostering intellectual achievement, leadership, and a commitment to public service and community. 

After his time in Ireland, Jimmy joined McKinsey and Company. While at the Firm, he has worked extensively with the McKinsey Global Institute, the firm’s economics research arm. In his spare time, he has written and sold a book proposal for a biography of the Roman Senator Cato, the arch nemesis of Julius Caesar. The book, tentatively called Rome’s Last Citizen: The Life and Legacy of Cato, is expected to be published in 2011 by Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin’s Press, an imprint of MacMillan.

During his WLP summer, Jimmy worked with Rep. Frank Pallone (NJ-6), whose district contains the fifth highest concentration of South-Asian Americans nationally. He credits WLP with giving him his real-life introduction to the political process. “I came to Congressman Pallone’s office fresh out of my first year of college, so it brought to life—and challenged my assumptions about—the things I had seen in my first-year textbooks. I think I learned what a fundamentally human enterprise politics is, even at the highest levels; that it is rarely, if ever, as simple as the kinds of cost-benefit analyses you’re taught to do in public policy class. Things like character, leadership, and luck matter a great deal.” He was also grateful to the WLP community for connecting him with other public-service minded young people. “That’s the truly great gift of a program like this one. You’re instantly humbled by the level of talent in the program, and engaged by the varied experiences and beliefs that people bring to the table. Many of the people from my WLP summer remain close friends, and my mentors from Congressman Pallone’s office and the program are people who I still turn to today.”

WLP Alumni Profile - Oeindrila Dube (Class of 1998)

WLP alum (’98) Oeindrila Dube is a post-doctoral fellow at the Center for Global Development assistant professor of politics and economics at New York University, where she studies the political economy of conflict. Long interested in issues of international policy, Oendrilla’s research described as "innovative," concerns the economic causes and consequences of conflict in developing regions.

After graduating from Stanford in 2000, she spent time at development and public policy organizations, like the World Bank, Oxfam International, and the Brookings Institute. In 2002, Dube was named a Rhodes Scholar and pursued a masters in economics from the University of Oxford. With hopes to continue her study of international political economies, Oeindrila joined the Harvard Kennedy School as a Ph.D. candidate in public policy.During this time, she traveled to  Colombia, gathering data on conflict dynamics, and to South Africa, to work with a team of Harvard researchers who advised the South African government on ways to improve the national growth rate.

Oendrila says that her WLP internship with Rep. Gary Ackerman (NY-5) gave her valuable skills in pursuing a career in research and public policy. “It was the first time I was placed in a political environment; it allowed me to observe the process, operate in these surroundings, and served as a stepping stone to later opportunities in DC.” By providing more than simply a placement in congressional office, WLP connects interns to a valuable network of South Asian professionals in Washington. “The program includes a considerable amount of programming with speakers and discussions, and this gave me
an opportunity to observe how organizations build alliances and reach out to policy makers. These skills and observations have proved useful in my understanding of policy.”

WLP Alum Hari Kondabalu on Comedy Central

Fans of Daily Show correspondent John Oliver got a chance to see rising star and 2003 WLP Alum Hari Kondabalu last week on Oliver's new Comedy Central Show, John Oliver's New York Stand Up Show. Hari's appearance on the show is another in a growing list of prominent TV and other performances including "Jimmy Kimmel Live," Comedy Central's "Live at Gotham" and was featured in the 2007 HBO U.S. Comedy Arts Festival. He made his big screen debut in 20th Century Fox's "All About Steve."

The Seattle Times has described him as "a young man reaching for the hand-scalding torch of confrontational comics like Lenny Bruce and Richard Pryor." Hari's material often covers issues of race, dealing with the difficult issue head on. 

Live at Gotham
Hari Kondabolu - Spell Check
www.comedycentral.com
Joke of the Day Stand-Up Comedy Free Online Games

Discussing difficult topics like racism and immigration can be challenging; to do so with humor without subtracting from the seriousness of the topic or losing the audience takes real talent. Hari has clearly proven that he has the skills. Best of luck, Hari! 

WLP Alumni Lt. Ritesh Srivastava Proud To Have Served in Iraq

 India Journal published an interview with WLP Alumni Lt. Ritesh Srivastava (Class of 1998), a Navy JAG attorney who recently returned to the US after a tour in Iraq in which he served as an attorney of Detainee Operations and worked with the Iraqi judiciary to establish Rule of Law.

He told India Journal that his deployment has provided him with a deeper understanding of the international political climate and made him realize how lucky he is to be in America where he had drifted into the habit of taking everything for granted.

Ritesh is now clerking for appellate military judges in Washington, DC.