UT Students Take on National Security Work from Capitol Hill to Geneva

Recipients of the Clements Center’s Student Professional Development Fund spent the 2025–26 academic year and the following summer working in congressional offices, think tanks, international organizations, and intensive research programs in seven countries, from Washington, D.C., and Honolulu in the United States to Armenia, Albania, Kosovo, Panama, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.

The fund supports University of Texas at Austin undergraduate and graduate students who secure unpaid internships in national security and foreign policy. Because many of the field’s most competitive positions pay no salary, the funding allows students to accept opportunities that would otherwise be out of reach and gain the professional experience that careers in government, policy research, and international affairs typically require. Past recipients have interned with the U.S. Department of State, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the United Nations, and the American Enterprise Institute.

This year’s cohort of 17 students continued that pattern.

Aarushi Garg, an International Relations and Global Studies and Plan II Honors major, interned with the Center on Cyber and Technology Innovation at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. She published six pieces, including a co-authored article with Rear Adm. (Ret.) Mark Montgomery on cyber strategy and information sharing. She also drafted public comments submitted to the U.S. Department of the Treasury and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on cyber insurance policy and health care cybersecurity. “This internship has made a career in cyber policy and national security feel far more tangible to me as I head into my senior year,” Garg said.

Margaret Hewitt, a Master of Global Policy Studies student at the LBJ School of Public Affairs, spent her summer at the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies in Honolulu. There she helped facilitate the largest Comprehensive Security Course in the center’s history: a five-week program for more than 140 security professionals from 25 Indo-Pacific countries. She joined discussions with senior visitors, including Adm. Samuel J. Paparo, commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command. Hewitt also published her first research paper, which examined structural vulnerability and policy responses to the Pacific drug trade.

Tanvi Merianda, an International Relations and Global Studies major, interned in the U.S. House of Representatives, where she led a legislative project preparing the chairman of the Joint Economic Committee for a roundtable with the Indian ambassador to the United States. Her brief on the proposed U.S.-India Bilateral Trade Agreement covered energy, data localization, critical minerals, and agricultural trade.

Deborah Chu, a Plan II Honors and Government major, interned with the U.S. Department of Justice through the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, where she worked in the Superior Court Division. She prepared legal research memoranda and trial briefings, supported grand jury training, updated case files, and reviewed evidence, gaining insight into investigations and prosecutions involving foreign actors. The internship confirmed her goal of becoming a federal prosecutor working in national security and cybercrime, a focus she plans to carry into law school.

Nitish Mirchandani, a Master of Global Policy Studies student at the LBJ School of Public Affairs, interned with a federal agency, where his work centered on defense and diplomacy. He supported bilateral and multilateral relationships with partner countries, produced long- and short-form research for internal publication and distribution, and briefed supervisors and leadership on developments in his region of focus.

Bianca Schutz, a Master of Science in Data Science student, worked with the Human Rights Statistics Unit at the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva. She designed an interactive report on human rights trends drawn from official statistics, helped improve the office’s data management platform, and attended sessions of the Human Rights Council.

Five recipients worked with the National Democratic Institute in offices across Eastern Europe and the Caucasus. Two were based in Armenia. Eva White, an International Relations, Government, and Russian Studies major, wrote a 25-page research report on energy security and democratic development. She also took part in an election observation mission during the country’s June parliamentary elections. Caleb Mulugeta, a Government and Economics major, analyzed several years of public opinion data on Armenians’ attitudes toward democracy. Elizabeth Donaway, a Government doctoral student, supported state audit and civic education projects in Tirana, Albania. Angela Fraioli, a Government doctoral student, contributed to NDI’s 2026 Election Report in Kosovo. Rendon Reinarz, a Master of Global Policy Studies student at the LBJ School of Public Affairs, worked with NDI’s Ukraine office from Pristina, monitoring Ukraine’s European Union integration reforms and Russian information manipulation targeting Ukrainian media.

Writing about her summer in Albania, Donaway noted that democracy requires more than political expertise and administrative capacity. “It also depends on a knowledgeable and engaged citizenry that believes it has a meaningful role in government.”

Three recipients studied with the Cambridge Security Initiative in Cambridge, England, which hosts Clements-funded students in summer programs on intelligence and international security each year. Vijay Davis, an International Relations and Global Studies and Plan II Honors major, completed the International Security and Intelligence Summer Programme at Emmanuel College, where he wrote an original research paper on how media landscapes shape national security debates. Priyanka Bhutani, an International Relations and Global Studies major, continued research she began during the 2025-26 academic year, building on a graduate seminar on Russian foreign policy and on observations from the Korea May Term study-abroad program about South Korea’s lack of a domestic oil industry. Emma Hamilton, a Plan II Honors and Government major, examined environmental security and the role intelligence institutions can play in assessing climate-related risks. Her project explored how satellite observations, open-source intelligence, and strategic analysis can provide policymakers with early warning of climate-driven instability.

The remaining recipients’ projects ranged just as widely. Brittni Palkert, a dual-degree student in Global Policy Studies and Latin American Studies, conducted survey and focus-group research on the Panama Canal with CID Gallup in Panama City, working alongside U.S. Embassy staff. Luke Carnine, a Master of Global Policy Studies student at the LBJ School of Public Affairs and UT System Archer Fellow, worked with Michael Kimmage at the Kennan Institute on the “Origins of the War” project. Geneva Cline, a Government major, used the fund for intensive language training, completing the equivalent of more than a year of Russian instruction in under two months at Indiana University’s Summer Language Workshop.

Applications for 2026–27 funding are now open to UT Austin undergraduate and graduate students. Details are available on the Student Professional Development Fund page.