10 Life

George Street Observer

March 22, 2007

Straight to
the top

Kristin Barcak has seen the face of AIDS, in more ways than one.
Not only has she seen it through her lobbying and political activism,
C of C poli sci students find
but she’s seen HIV turn to AIDS and claim the life of her favorite aunt in
the early ‘90s. At the time, medicine to ease the effects of the disease was
great success within reach
extremely scarce in the U.S., and Barcak’s aunt suffered all the way to her
death. A few years later, AIDS medication became more available, but By Nicole NOble
only in expensive name-brand form. Staff Writer
With big name-brand companies guarding their patents,
Barcak felt a strong need to explore the benefits and availabil- Politics, for John Connor Cleveland has always been “dinner
ity of generic medications. She asked political science profes- table fodder.” So when he headed to C of C, a degree in political
sor Philip Jos how to find a summer 2006 internship related science was an easy choice. Cleveland’s political path continued
to her cause. Jos guided her to the Health Global Access to be a steady, methodical journey until the time for an internship
Project’s Web site, where she eagerly applied. Once accepted, arose. Working completely independently, Cleveland applied for an
she went to the project’s home base in Philadelphia where internship for the summer of 2006 in Sen. Lindsey Graham’s office.
she worked on an international level with organizations such He won the internship.
as the U.N.’s World Health Organization, and also nationally, At the beginning of the summer, Cleveland moved to Washing-
analyzing George W. Bush’s policy for AIDS money. ton D.C., where his everyday duty of opening the mail echoed the
Barcak also worked on a bill promoting the training of responsibilities of canaries sent underground by miners to check
health care workers in Africa. And, at the World AIDS con- for poisonous gasses. As Cleveland says, “If one of us died of An-
ference in Toronto, which Bill Clinton and Bill Gates also at- thrax, they’d shut down the office.”
tended, Barcak took activism to the ultimate level, when she Two of Cleveland’s other intern duties, answering phone calls
disguised herself as a staff member and made quite a political and guiding tour groups through the Capitol Building and the Sen-
statement. Once inside, she released helium ballons tied to ate office buildings, proved to be less dangerous tasks. Most of the
doctor’s lab coats, which teetered conspicuously beneath the people he communicated with during this part of his job were sup-
Kristin Barcak conference room ceiling. The statement-making jackets read
“Universal access=billions 4 health care workers now.”
porters of Sen. Graham.
Now a senior, Cleveland is finishing up a second major in His-
Barcak will graduate in May of 2007, and plans to take a tory, and having met all of the requirements of his political science
year off before continuing her political career at law school. degree, he’s currently considering his post-graduate options. Law
or campaign work may be in his future, but if you ask him, his first
response will be that he is moving to Colorado to become a “ski
bum”—at least for a year. After four years of diligent studies, he’s
Helen Van Wagoner sent her college application to C of C with John Connor ready for a vacation from the books. But with the 2008 elections ap-
proaching, he may find himself drawn to the campaign trail again.
her mind on a nursing career. But by the time she enrolled, she
had added World Politics to her course list and shifted her atten-
Cleveland As for politicians, Cleveland says, “I don’t know who my favorite
is yet, because I don’t know who I’ll be working for.”
tion to foreign relations and global issues. After a short stint in sci-
ence, she declared her political science major freshman year and
moved from course to course in the department, enlivened by a
future that could combine travel opportunities with a career.
Van Wagoner sighted the International Education of Students A talented junior golfer with heroes who include
table at a study abroad fair and in a matter of months, she was jet- Payne Stewart and Tiger Woods, David Butler gradu-
setting to a study abroad program in Amsterdam to explore her ated from high school simply wanting the college
Dutch heritage while continuing to expand her world view. When experience, rationalizing that C of C’s namesake city
the program ended, Van Wagoner wasted no time. She researched could give him what he wanted.
internship opportunities on the U.S. State Department’s Web site Unfortunately for his golf game, but fortunately for
and moved on to a political internship at the U.S. Embassy in the Washington, D.C., Butler found his niche while taking
Hague, Netherlands. American Government and declared as a political sci-
But Van Wagoner’s internship went far beyond a coffee girl. ence major his sophomore year. Political department
She likens her position as a “pseudo foreign service officer” and chair Dr. Lynne Ford served as an advisor to Butler,
describes tasks such as researching information on Croatia for the guiding him to the C of C Honors College where he
U.S. ambassador before a meeting of ambassadors and meeting learned of a program offered through the University
with a Dutch diplomat in charge of affairs in Southeast Asia. of South Carolina.
And that’s not all. Van Wagoner also spent the fall 2006 semes- Once he applied, interviewed and was accepted,
ter studying at the University of Oxford in England, enrolling in Butler journeyed to the District for a position as a se-
courses such as Eastern European politics and English literature. mester-long fellow for Sen. Lindsey Graham, where
Currently back in her American homeland, Van Wagoner he gave tours of Sen. Graham’s office and the Capital
plans to graduate in May of 2007, is considering the London Helen Van Wagoner Building. A number of people asked Butler for photos
School of Economics and Oxford’s masters program, has applied and autographs, he says, because they believed in his
for a scholarship to study Arabic in Jordan and is setting her sights future success and that his signature would one day be
on a career as a real foreign service officer. very valuable.
Shortly after arriving back at C of C, Butler con-

How do they do it?

With two states wedged between South Caroli-
na and Washington, D.C., politics would seem like
an interest pursued more by students at George-
town University than C of C. But currently there
are a number of political science students extend-
ing their reach abroad, including sophomore Em-
ily Correale and junior Deborah Plant, who are
both studying in South Africa, and junior Ladd
Bayliss, who is in Kenya. Junior Matt Seager, an-
other exceptional student, recently interned with
Vermont senator James Jeffers.
With so many students exploring politics na-
tionally and internationally, some may wonder
how these students secured such great opportuni-
ties.
Are there sub-pages on Cistern Online that
just aren’t accessible? Where are the fliers on study
abroad programs in South Africa?
The secret, it turns out, is not a secret so long as
the student takes the first step, which is as easy as
talking with your advisor. In fact, the overarching
trend of many political science majors who have
completed study abroad programs and internships
comes down to one word: initiative.
This especially includes the profiled students,
who all either obtained their programs indepen-
dently or took the initiative to ask an advisor
or professor. Luckily for these students, the Po-
litical Science department seems to be holding
their end of the deal, by effectively helping their
students achieve their goals.
Even if these students’ advisors did not have
the resources to help them, they immediately
directed them to a more knowledgeable per-
son on the topic. Political science professor Dr.
Philip Jos said that when his advisees come to
him and start asking questions about intern-
ships, he suggests they meet with department
chair Dr. Lynne Ford. For study abroad he refers
them to Dr. Guoli Liu, who has taken groups to
Asia, or to Dr. Jack Parson, the former Direc-
tor of the Office of International Education and
Programs.
Parson also acts as a liaison between inter-
ested students and programs and has referred
students to internship coordinator Erin Blevins.
When Parson meets with students about study
abroad opportunities, he says he asks them
about their interests, their goals and the reasons
for their curiosity, in order to help them identify
programs that meet their needs.
But once the program is defined (and this
tinued his hard work when he teamed up with senior
Kristen Munzie as a campus chair for Sen. John McCain’s ex-
ploratory committee. Now, Ford guides students to Butler.
You could say Butler has executive-sized dreams of an oval
tradition, and with a Rolodex full of government contacts, you
may be right. And, with his Facebook group devoted to the or-
David Butler II
ganization Peace One Day topping out at just short of 400 mem-
bers, a political platform could be in the making. But even with
his whispers of open S.C. House District seats, for now Butler photos by Nicole Noble
Capital Building image provided by
remains content with four flat walls of his studio office suite.
istockphoto.com
goes for internships as well), political science advisors One of the goals of the First Year Experience, part
step back and let the students do the grunt work. Ap- of the Fourth Century Initiative, is to increase students’
plications, cover letters, follow-up phone calls and travel knowledge of who to talk to.
arrangements become the responsibility of the student, Goss says that the implementation of the new Qual-
and if help is needed, again, students must take the ini- ity Enhancement Plan, which covers the improvement of
tiative to ask for it. the First Year Experience, “plays right into what we want
College-wide, the increase in opportunity for intern- to accomplish in the advising center.” This accomplish-
ships and independent studies has been a goal ever since ment includes “giving students the information so they
former president Leo Higdon’s “Fourth Century Initia- can move into their major and build faculty relationships,”
tive” plan debuted in 2002. Goss says.
And though the political science department seems And many of the most accomplished C of C students
to be effective in producing exceptional grads, students agree that building strong relationships with faculty has
give a lot of credit to the Honors College and the Inter- helped them tremendously in both academics and career
national and Education Programs department as well. aspirations.
The problem keeping more students from taking ad- With an internship coordinator in every department,
vantage of the opportunities available to them is not that C of C students will likely continue challenging themselves
the departments will not help students, but that students with high-stake internships and study abroad programs.
do not know where to look or who to ask about these
opportunities. Contact Nicole at nbnoble@gmail.com.