The Washington-Ireland Program for Service and Leadership (WIP) is a six-month program of personal and
professional development
Professional development is learning to earn or maintain professional credentials such as academic degrees to formal coursework, attending conferences, and informal learning
Informal learning is characterized "by a low degree of planning and ...
that brings
university students from
Northern Ireland and the
Republic of Ireland to
Washington, DC for summer internships and leadership training. The program begins and ends with practical service (usually some form of voluntary work in the
NGO or political sectors) in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. It was originally called The Young Leaders Program.
In Washington, participants get first-hand experience with
U.S. government
The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States, a federal republic located primarily in North America, composed of 50 states, a city within a fede ...
and politics and an immersion in American culture by living with an area host family. Through an eight-week schedule, participants are encouraged to work and learn as a team and to create an environment of mutual respect. The program aims to send students home with enhanced professional and interpersonal skills and a new confidence in their own leadership abilities which they are expected to demonstrate through service to their own communities. Among the 2007
Internship opportunities were placements in the Senate offices of then
Senators Barack Obama and
Hillary Clinton.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar
Leo Eric Varadkar ( ; born 18 January 1979) is an Irish politician who has served as Taoiseach since December 2022, and previously from 2017 to 2020. He served as Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment from June 2020 to De ...
was a member of the Class of 2000.
About the Program
Since its inception in 1995, the program has expanded from four to eight weeks, allowing time for both leadership training and work experience. Students are placed in offices across the Washington metropolitan region representing federal and local government, businesses, non-profit organizations, professional services firms and media organizations. Placements have included
The White House, Congressional offices, The Northern Ireland Bureau, The
World Bank,
Habitat for Humanity
Habitat for Humanity International (HFHI), generally referred to as Habitat for Humanity or Habitat, is a US non-governmental, and nonprofit organization which was founded in 1976 by couple Millard and Linda Fuller. Habitat for Humanity is a Ch ...
,
AFL-CIO,
CNN and
CBS, Library of Congress, Environmental Protection Agency, National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, The Justice Project, Imagination Stage and Solas Nua, among many others.
Participants develop practical leadership abilities by committing to 30 hours of service in their own communities before the summer and 40 hours in a Group Service Project when they return. Students also help launch and run the following year's program by assisting with marketing, recruiting, selecting and mentoring the succeeding WIP class.
Successful candidates must be Irish-born, or Irish or British (NI) citizens with current passports. They must be full-time students in Ireland or the
United Kingdom, between the ages of 18 and 25, and passing their subjects at a better than passing grade. Moreover, they must be willing to demonstrate leadership through service before and after the program, and be ready to participate in diverse leadership teams. Program applicants have represented more than 30 different universities in Northern Ireland, Ireland, England and Scotland.
To date, 300 young adults have graduated from the program. Many WIP graduates have moved into important careers in politics, business, media and education. These include: a research officer to the NI First Minister in Westminster; television and radio news journalists; reporters for major newspapers in Belfast and London; barristers and solicitors; university professors and primary school teachers; consultants with Accenture and PriceWaterhouseCoopers; Dublin PR firm managers; assistant to Members of the NI Assembly and the Irish Parliament; political party operatives in Northern Ireland and the Republic; and Executive Officer for the Home Office in London. Among the notable alumni is
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar
Leo Eric Varadkar ( ; born 18 January 1979) is an Irish politician who has served as Taoiseach since December 2022, and previously from 2017 to 2020. He served as Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment from June 2020 to De ...
.
Initially begun in partnership with the Students' Union at Queen's University, Belfast, WIP has received support from the Irish Government through its Department of Education and the International Fund for Ireland as well as the UK government and the US State Department. The program is now actively developing partnerships with other government departments, universities, businesses, foundations and individuals that will support its core program and help expand alumni programs.
The Washington-Ireland Program is an extension of Project Children, a program that sponsors six-week summer holidays in the U.S. for young people from Northern Ireland. The participants, who stay with American Host Families, range in age from 10–14 years old and come from neighborhoods in which the Protestant-Catholic conflict has taken an especially heavy toll. For most children, these visits provide a first-time opportunity to get to know people from the other side of the sectarian divide. In its 27-year existence, Project Children has had 17,000 participants. Project Children also works with vocational trainees from Northern Ireland and the Republic who get on-site work experience in the U.S. by building homes with Habitat for Humanity.
[Source: Article originally by Simon Lloyd-Lavery, 2006 team member.]
In 2001, alumni members of the Washington-Ireland Programme established a charity known as the
Youth Empowerment Scheme
The Youth Empowerment Scheme, or YES, was a charity in Belfast that offered a mentoring service to children between 11 and 14 years old.
History
YES was established in 2001 by participants on the Washington Ireland Program including Chris Johnst ...
, a mentoring programme for children aged 11–14 years old from across Belfast. The aim of YES is to promote social inclusion of children from different ethnic, religious, educational and socio-economic backgrounds.
Notable alumni
*
Leo Varadkar
Leo Eric Varadkar ( ; born 18 January 1979) is an Irish politician who has served as Taoiseach since December 2022, and previously from 2017 to 2020. He served as Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment from June 2020 to De ...
(Class of 2000),
Fine Gael TD for
Dublin West
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 cens ...
and
Taoiseach (Head of Government) of Ireland since 14 June 2017. Varadkar was elected as Leader of
Fine Gael on 2 June 2017. First openly gay cabinet minister in Ireland and at 38, the youngest ever Taoiseach.
*
Chris Lyttle (Class of 2002),
Alliance Party MLA for
East Belfast.
*
Emma Pengelly (Class of 2002), MP for
Belfast South since June 2017,former
Democratic Unionist Party
The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) is a unionist, loyalist, and national conservative political party in Northern Ireland. It was founded in 1971 during the Troubles by Ian Paisley, who led the party for the next 37 years. Currently led by J ...
MLA for
Belfast South and
Junior Minister in the
Northern Ireland Executive.
*
Noel Rock
Noel Rock (born 11 November 1987) is an Irish former Fine Gael politician who served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin North-West constituency from 2016 to 2020. He previously served as Chair of the Committee on Housing, Planning and Loca ...
(Class of 2006),
Fine Gael TD for
Dublin North-West.
*
Claire Sugden (Class of 2008), independent MLA for
East Londonderry East Londonderry or East Derry can refer to:
* The eastern part of County Londonderry
* The eastern part of the city of Derry
* East Londonderry (Assembly constituency)
* East Londonderry (UK Parliament constituency)
East Londonderry is a par ...
and former
Justice Minister in the
Northern Ireland Executive
*
Patricia O'Lynn
Patricia O'Lynn (born 28 September 1989) is a Northern Irish academic, educator, and politician who was an Alliance Party Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) from 2022 to 2023. She was elected as an MLA in the 2022 Northern Ireland Assemb ...
(Class of 2016),
Alliance Party MLA for
North Antrim since May 2022.
See also
*
VISTA
*
Internship
*
Study abroad
International students, or foreign students, are students who undertake all or part of their tertiary education in a country other than their own and move to that country for the purpose of studying.
In 2019, there were over 6 million internati ...
References and notes
{{Reflist
External links
Official websiteOfficial alumni website
Ireland–United States relations
Vocational education
Internship programs
Education in Ireland