Panel on Middle East Internships

Nahid Seyedsayamdost, Program Assistant

Barak Barfi (JTS) jashar@umich.edu
ABC News Field Producer and AP Correspondent, both in Jerusalem
Barak was sent into the field to interview politicians and other VIP and also to conflict zones where he had to cover refugee issues.

Shirabe Yamada (SIPA, MIA 1) shirabey@yahoo.com
Program Director of Volunteers for Peace in Palestine, Middle East Children's Alliance
Shirabe is the Prog Dir of VPP, which is an organization that matches people seeking internships in the NGO and non-profit sector with such positions.

Samar Mussa Al-Bulushi (CC'01/ SIPA, MIA 1) sma42@columbia.edu BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights Bethlehem
Samar worked with Palestinian refugees and helped them with legal issues.

Heidi Altman (SIPA, MIA 1) heidi_altman@yahoo.com B'Tselem, Israeli organization doing human rights work in occupied territories, Israel
Heidi worked for an Israeli organization that worked for Palestinian human rights issues. She said two important skills for any internship nowadays are being able to design web sites and being able to speak languages.

Yasmine Mahdavi (SIPA, MPA 2) ym179@columbia.edu United Nations Regional Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia Beirut, Lebanon
She recommends people really investigating the internship they want to get into.

Neguin Yavari ny71@columbia.edu
Associate Professor of Religion at Columbia
Neguin has language teaching opportunities in Iran and Tajikistan. Neguin has opportunities for people to live and teach English in Tajikistan for three months in the summer.

Kareem Fahim kf210@columbia.edu
Al-Ahram Weekly Newspaper Cairo SIPA, MIA 2
Kareem wrote articles for al-Ahram.

Michael Morefield (CC'01) msm49@columbia.edu
US Embassy in Bahrain
The internship was fulfilling because he wrote many cables and was really involved with what was going on.