Women's Microfinance Initiative

WMI has internship opportunities available both in Bethesda and in Buyobo, Uganda on a rolling basis. Seniors in high school, college students and graduates students are invited to apply.

Buyobo: Internships in Buyobo are for 30 – 90 days. Interns live in Bulambuli village and meals are provided by women in the loan program at no cost to the interns. Housing is also provided in the village at no cost to the intern. WMI volunteers live under the same conditions as the villagers – there is no running water and no electricity. Interns must arrange for their own transportation to and from Uganda.

Once in Bulambuli, interns will provide a variety of support services for the WMI program. They will assist with automating records, training WMI personnel on the computer and on certain programs like Excel and Word, tutor school age children in reading, writing and simple math, help borrowers with their book keeping, interview and compose borrower profiles, take photos and make videos of loan program activities.

Bethesda: Internships in Bethesda are a minimum of 3 months and include working with borrower files, updating web site information, preparing loan documents, and other support services.

TO INQUIRE: Please e-mail us if you are interested in an internship position: wmicontact@gmail.com

Internship News

WMI is taking 12 high school students to Buyobo in July 2010. The main goal of the trip will be to set up an Internet Café in Buyobo, where the loan program is headquartered. Discovery Communications in Silver Spring has generously donated 15 lap top computers to WMI, which the students will take with them to Uganda. + View Brochure

Interns:

Summer 2009 - Buyobo Interns

Danica Castraith and Tobin Jones - juniors at McGill University in Canada. They have helped Olive get wireless access, automated records, introduced a tutoring program, and helped with final building logistics.

Summer 2009 - Bethesda Interns

WMI summer interns in Bethesda, Maryland are undertaking a comprehensive statistical analysis project in order to profile the borrowers in the WMI program and investigate the progress of the loan initiative. They are also preparing grant applications and researching issues impacting the borrowers.

Bryan Norris - a senior at Davidson College in North Carolina. During the summer of 2008 he interned on Capitol Hill in the offices of U.S. Representatives Sue Meryick and John M. Spratt, Jr. He arranged TV and radio interviews, attended House committee hearings and votes on the house floor, engaged in correspondence with constituents, and gave US Capitol tours. He is an Eagle Scout and organized a program to supply AIDS home-based treatment kits for 250 affected families in Malawi. Since 2008, he has tutored at Ada Jenkins Center LEARNworks and has been an editor of the Perspectives section for the Davidsonian, a campus newspaper.

David Jaffe - lives in Chevy Chase, Maryland and is currently attending Wheaton College in Norton, Mass., where he is majoring in Studio Arts. David is integrating WMI's media products and revamping the WMI website.

Laura Van Oudenaren - lives in Bethesda, Maryland and is a senior at Davidson College in North Carolina. She has volunteered with an after-school tutoring program called Ada Jenkins Center LEARNworks since her freshman year, and has been an editor for the Davidsonian, a campus newspaper. In the summer of 2005 and 2006 she spent time volunteering on the Three Affiliated Tribes Reservation in North Dakota through a program called Running Strong that focuses on improving living situations for Native American Youth. During the 2008 fall semester she went to Cameroon to study French and Economic Development.

Alex Richardson - will be a sophomore at Oberlin College. He is working with WMI on it's statistical analysis of Borrower data. His family is relocating to Uganda this summer and he will be interning in Buyobo, in August 2009, where he will assist with automating WMI records.

Elizabeth Scroggs - lives in Silver Spring, Maryland and is a junior at Tulane University in New Orleans. At Tulane she is involved in a tutoring program called Tulane Afterschool Enrichment (TAE). An educational trip to El Salvador through CRISPAZ in 2006 inspired her continued involvement in international development. She started her internship here at WMI in the June 2009.

Montana M. Stevenson - lives in Bethesda, Maryland and is a senior in the Echols Scholars Program at the University of Virginia. She has participated in outreach and education programs sponsored by Heifer Project (rural Massachusetts), Running Strong (focusing on Native Americans in North Dakota), and CRIZPAZ in El Salvador. During the 2007 - 2008 academic year she served as an intern at the Women's Resource Center at UVA. She is a member of Bradley Hills Presbyterian Church. Montana traveled to Uganda and assisted with the Program Launch in January 2008.

Victoria Stevenson - live in Bethesda, Maryland and is starting her Freshmen year at TUFTS University in Boston. Victoria specializes in supporting the interns in their work with WMI.

Jessie McComb - is a candidate for a Master's of Tourism Administration at GWU and holds a B.A. dual degree in Art History/Physics from Hamilton College in NY. She currently is the Graduate Assistant to Dr. Hawkins in the Department of Tourism and Hospitality at GWU. From 2004 - 2008 she served in various capacities, including Services Manager, Programs & New Business, for the Artisan Market. During her tenure at the Artisan Market she: developed and implemented a market survey for heritage tourism product development in South Africa, Mozambique and Angola; coordinated logistics for training programs; developed a strategic plan for tourism related development programs; managed new business opportunities across the department; designed and managed economic development programs related to the crafts sector; wrote proposals and created budgets for government and private funding opportunities; and researched US and foreign government and private funding opportunities.

Jennifer Holland - is a sophomore at Wellesley College in Massachusetts.

Daniel Van Oudenaren - Davidson College in North Carolina (class of 2008

Hart W. Wood - Mary Washington University.

Montana M. Stevenson - The Echols Scholars Program at the University of Virginia.