Undergraduate Opportunities

  • INTERNATIONAL
  • American Councils Overseas Professional Intercultural Training (OPIT) Program (summer program for students committed to international careers - through OPIT's eight-week, English-language internships, students gain the substantive overseas professional experience and intercultural communication skills demanded by today’s global market. Participants can choose a placement in a variety of fields, including business, democracy building, human rights, education, gender equality, journalism, public health, environmental protection, and social services in 19 countries throughout Southeast Europe, Eurasia, the Baltics, and East Asia)
  • Full Academic Year Experience - Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange for Young Professionals - Cultural Vistas (an academic year in Germany, primarily for recent graduates - but current undergraduates are also eligible)
  • Boren Scholarships -- Regional Flagship Language Program (for undergraduates:  intensive summer language study in the U.S. plus associated immersive language study in the fall semester at a specific Boren location for students committed to careers in the intelligence and security sectors of federal service; you'll also want to work with PIC to receive approval for study abroad, but these particular Flagship language programs are not administered by GVSU)
  • Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) Program (summer on-site or virtual immersive and intensive language study of a critical need language - i.e., Arabic, Russian, Bangla, Tewa, Mandarin, Hindi, Farsi or other)
  • US-UK Fulbright Summer Institute (summer academic program at a participating British university for students who are underrepresented in study abroad / without study-abroad experience / with a GPA of 3.7 or higher)
  • Cultural Vistas Scholarships and Programs (including CBYX, but with MANY MORE State-Department sponsored programs for undergraduates and alumni - Cultural Vistas internship and work-abroad programs allow students and professionals to develop the expanding set of competencies demanded in today’s global economy through sustained immersion in a foreign country – language learninginterdisciplinary problem solvingempathy, and respect for cultural attitudes and ideas, to name a few)
  • Douglass-O'Connell Global Internship (formerly known as the Frederick Douglass Global Fellowship)
  • USINDO Summer Studies Program: Study Abroad in Indonesia
  • Big Brainstorm - Our Future Agenda (United Nations) (The Big Brainstorm is an opportunity for young thinkers and activists from around the world to come together to embark on a two week virtual design sprint to explore, prototype, and launch initiatives to tackle some of humanity’s greatest challenges.)
  • Global Sustainability Scholars (gsscholar.org)

For more possibilities for service experiences (for alumni, graduate students and undergraduates, see Roadmap to Fellowships.

Laken Chapin '24 (Accounting)

Laken Chapin '24 (Accounting). Laken was awarded the Public Policy and International Affairs (PPIA) Junior Summer Institute Fellowship Award. This award will give her the opportunity to pursue her passion for public policy, specifically in tax, by letting her experience graduate-level coursework, research, and leadership support from Princeton University. She plans to attend their JSI in the Summer of 2024.   

Each year, PPIA seeks out high-potential undergraduate students from universities across the country to become PPIA Fellows and participate in an intensive, seven-week PPIA Junior Summer Institute hosted by one of their six prestigious university partners. The Junior Summer Institute program is specially designed to give students from historically underrepresented backgrounds and diverse lived experience greater access to a successful career in public service.



Page last modified March 29, 2024