The 38^th Parallel: Connecting D.C. to Minneapolis

About the author: Corie Wieland '21 was a Summer Research Intern for 38 North, a Korea-focused policy and analysis team within the Stimson Center. She is currently a second-year student in the Ford Dorsey Master’s in International Policy (MIP) program at Stanford University.

“My name is Corie Wieland. I am a rising second-year at Stanford University’s Ford Dorsey Master’s in International Policy program. I spent my summer at a prominent D.C. think tank, where I learned networking and research skills concurrently. I enjoyed sharing coffee every morning with my coworkers before we settled into our daily tasks, and I met friends and colleagues for lunch every day at a different D.C. café. My intern duties included attending and reporting on local events and conferences, where I met prominent scholars and policy experts in my field. I ran the National Mall twice a week, have the greatest Instagram you’ve ever seen, and I made personal and professional relationships that I will value for years to come. The end.”

However much I wish for the above to be true, the truth is that, like every other intern or student in the world, nothing about my summer 2020 experience went according to plan. “I’ve never been to the East Coast,” I remember saying in my video interview, “and I want to experience a true D.C. summer before I start career-planning in earnest. If I can handle a D.C. summer, I can handle anything.”

In the end, my D.C. summer was far from how I imagined. Fortunately, it was better. Let’s try this again: 

My name is Corie Wieland. I am a rising second-year at Stanford University’s Ford Dorsey Master’s in International Policy program. I was fortunate to spend my summer working with 38 North, a Korea-focused policy and analysis team within the Stimson Center. I enjoyed sharing everything from overnight news headlines to memes with my team over chat as we drank our morning coffee and settled into the workday. I had Zoom “lunches” with friends and colleagues in D.C., California, and everywhere in between. Part of my intern assignments included attending webinar panel presentations and conferences from all over the world, where I became familiar with experts located in South Korea, China, Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. I didn’t visit any D.C. landmarks, but I did run my first 15k on my neighborhood trails. Most importantly, I made personal and professional relationships that I will value for years to come. And I did it all from Minneapolis.

The “virtual internship” seemed daunting at first. But I logged into my email and chat channels five minutes early every morning; I made to-do lists on colored Post-it notes that I stuck next to my monitor; I logged deadlines and meeting times in my e-calendar and turned my notifications to high; and before I knew it, I forgot about the challenges of a virtual internship and lost myself in the daily rhythm of a 9-to-5 at a non-profit, nonpartisan think tank.

38 North is well-known for its satellite imagery and research-based analysis and commentary on North and South Korea. As an intern for the team, my duties included preparing daily briefings of North Korean media and Korea-focused US media, writing research-based memos for resident and non-resident fellows, and presenting a five-minute in-depth personal research assignment to the senior Stimson staff.

While each task granted me invaluable research, analysis, and writing experience—the cornerstone skills of any policy student or D.C. hopeful—the accompanying people-to-people experiences were by far the most memorable. In listening to my coworkers discuss the implications of the news briefing I wrote that morning, in attending conferences and reading publications by my greater Stimson colleagues, and in taking notes for issue-specific meetings between policy experts, I became an active member of the policy community and finally experienced the full “D.C. summer” I had envisioned.

As I prepare to leave this internship and begin my final year of graduate school, I am beyond grateful to the 38 North and Stimson Center teams for welcoming its first cohort of virtual interns with open-inboxes. I will value the relationships I built with my team members as much as I will value the hands-on analytical experience that will prepare me for my future in the international policy community, whether that be in D.C. or Minneapolis, public or private, the U.S. or beyond. After all, I handled a D.C. summer in the times of COVID-19. I am prepared for anything.