The International Business &
Development Internship Program
Partner with a Real Business
The International Business & Development Internship Program is a first-of-its-kind program that allows students to work directly with businesses in the developing world. Leadership Initiatives identifies small business owners and participants for the program who live on less than $1.90 a day, have limited business experience, and struggle to provide for their family’s basic needs.
The International Business & Development Internship Program then pairs student interns with a business partner and a business mentor. As an intern of the International Business & Development Internship, students will help tackle major issues at grass-roots level. Interns will work directly with their small business owners in Bauchi, Nigeria to support and incubate local entrepreneurs.
Students will work with Leadership Initiatives staff over the course of nine months to provide income-generating solutions for these small business owners that focus on food supply, women’s empowerment, environmental sustainability, personal care, and mobility.
Interns will get practical exposure to business start-ups, project management, social development efforts, business ethics, and mentorship. Interns will also see first hand how innovation can solve issues and help provide for the most vulnerable population.
Grades: Rising Freshmen To Graduating Seniors
Summit Dates: September 1st – May 15th
Time: 1 – 2 Hours per Week
Location: Online
Price: Free
Program Highlights
Partner with a Real Business
Develop a Marketing Strategy, Financial Plan, and Expansion Proposal for a Start-up Business
Students will intern with the Leadership Initiatives and work directly with entrepreneurs in sub-Saharan Africa. Interns will collaborate with business mentors, development organizations, and more to create a business plan to improve a real business in the developing world.
Interns will help small business owners find new ways to generate income and savings from their small businesses and ultimately improve their standard of living and help them provide for themselves and their families.
Determine How Small Business Grants Are Spent
Each internship team will determine how their business partner spends seed money to improve their business. Working in teams, interns will create unique solutions to market problems facing the community of the business.
Leadership Initiatives Facilitators and Business Managers will guide interns through key focus areas as students interpret market feedback, test your assumptions, and overcome challenges.
Hands-on Experience
Implement Business Solutions with Industry Experts
Wrestle with Issues Confronting Small Businesses
As an intern for the International Business & Development Internship, students will use an interactive approach to learning that gives them an opportunity to immerse themself in the challenging complexities of the business world.
Students will have an unparalleled opportunity to collaborate with industry leaders to help their start-up business partner improve their business venture. Internship teams will improve the direction their business partner takes as they help them make decisions in finance, production, research & development, human resources, and marketing.
Work One-On-One With Industry Leaders
Interns will meet with and learn from global experts about how to build and manage a successful small business in sub-Sarahan Africa.
Leadership Training
Rare Opportunity to Build Confidence and Resume Through Hands-On Leadership Development and Experiential Learning
Interns will become a key player determining the success or failure of their partner’s business. Interns will receive a strong insight into ethical practices and leadership etiquette, giving them an advantage over their peers.
Experience International Diversity and Interact with Global Leaders
Students will work with the Leadership Initiatives team in Bauchi, Nigeria, to conduct customer research, develop market insights, and create solutions with development experts. These interactions will provide interns with global insight.
Program events will allow students to learn how each corporation launches marketing plans, creates new products, and remains active within the community it resides.
International Internship Program Benefits
SAT/ACT Training
TestRocker is the premier online SAT/ACT training resource for high school students across the United States.
SAT/ACT Training
Featured in Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, and The Huffington Post, TestRocker is the premier online SAT/ACT training resource for high school students across the United States. All summer program participants will receive one year of free online SAT/ACT training from TestRocker valued at over $1200.
TestRocker utilizes personalized learning that incorporates technology & quality content to enable students to drastically increase their ability to take college standardized tests. TestRocker combines highly-effective private tutors with the best technology on the market to increase student scores.
Students have increased their SAT & ACT scores by an average of 280 points and 4 points, respectively.
TestRocker comes with customized lessons, full-length tests, and 24/7 customer service.
We will email the students’ parents a bi-weekly report so that parents can keep track of their progress.
College Probability
Modeling
LI has designed a system that will calculate the probability of acceptance into the student’s top university choices
College Probability
Modeling
Leadership Initiatives and our partners at Parchment, TestRocker and University Initiatives have designed a system that will calculate the probability of acceptance into the student’s top university choices based on the students GPA, test scores, extracurricular activities, career goals, financial need and more.
The Leadership Initiatives college admissions team will then help all participants narrow their college interest list and create a college application plan.
Because our college admissions teamwork with a broad range of higher education institutions, their advice, and beneficial knowledge will allow students to further understand the college admissions process.
Summer Program
Scholarships
IIP participants receive personalized scholarships to attend a LI Youth Development Program at Georgetown.
Summer Program Scholarships
Participants in the International Internship Program receive personalized scholarships to attend a Leadership Initiatives Youth Development Program of your choice at Georgetown University. Leadership Initiatives has week-long intensive internships in the fields of Business, Medicine, and Law.
We are the only summer program in the world where students intern with a real business, law firm, or hospital, work directly with college admissions officers, and meet one-on-one with subject matter experts to explore career field options.
For-profit summer education programs showcase simulations as the key component of their educational experience. As a nonprofit organization, we are proud to offer real experiences that impact the lives of students and the individuals they are partnered with.
Click here to visit LIChange.org/Summer to learn more about our programs.
So you can start an internship with a business in the developing world, work with a DC lawyer on an impending court case or partner with a doctor to diagnose patients in sub-Saharan Africa.
College Essay Review
All IIP participants are able to submit five college application essays for review by our partners at University Connection.
College Essay
Review
Participants in the International Internship Program receive one-on-one essay editing assistance from Leadership Initiatives partner University Connection.
This offer is exclusive, and not available with any other institution or program!
Each student essay will be edited to ensure it makes an excellent impression at every stage of the competitive application process. The editors will improve the style, clarity, sentence structure and coherence of your application so that your achievements are noticed.
Editors bring their experience in many different backgrounds, including Science and Technology, Commerce, Management, and the Humanities.
Letters of
Recommendation
IIP students will have the opportunity to have two letters of recommendation written for them by any LI staff member.
Letters of Recommendations
Student interns who participate in the International Internship Program will have the opportunity to have two written for them from any Leadership Initiatives staff member, including the Executive Director Marshall Bailly.
Students interns will also have the opportunity to have letters written by Leadership Initiatives partners from the International Business & Development Internship, International Public Health Internship, and International Law & Advocacy Internship.
These unique and complimentary letters are one of the most highly regarded benefits that Leadership Initiatives has. Below are letters of recommendation from past students showcasing how the program transformed their lives:
Click here to request letters of recommendation.
Matthew Matusiewicz – Full Ride to UC Berkley School of Engineering
Samantha Williams – Attending Harvard University
Ricky Toh – Outside Merit-Based Full-Ride Scholarship to Stanford University
Meredith Karle – Full Scholarship to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Real-World Experience
Students who participate in IIP will partner with business, public health, or advocacy organizations in the developing world.
Real-World Experience
The single greatest thing any student can have when applying for college is an experience that sets them apart from their peers. Students who participate in the International Internship Program help develop solutions for real-world problems facing communities in developing nations.
Not only does this demonstrate each student’s immense dedication to the welfare of communities worldwide, but it also highlights crucial skills including organization, team collaboration, creativity, effective communication, and many more essential qualities of leadership.
Leadership Initiatives Youth Development Program participants have been accepted into Harvard, Stanford, Georgetown, George Washington, University of Chicago, Northwestern, MIT, and other top colleges in the globe, due in part to the unmatched experience gained through the program
Scholarship Assistance
LI has compiled a database of past scholarship recipients to identify these factors and ease the burden of scholarship application for IIP students.
Scholarship Assistance
Hundreds of thousands of scholarships exist for upcoming college students, and financial aid and scholarships can be a deciding factor in a student’s ability to attend college.
However, many of these scholarships have unspecified stipulations and may only reward scholarship to students in a certain demographic (i.e. location, a relative who works at the respective company, etc.). Leadership Initiatives has compiled a database of past scholarship recipients to identify these factors and ease the burden of scholarship application for IBIP students.
LI provides unmatched one-on-one scholarship assistance to each IBIP student through personalized searches, individual Skype calls, and scholarship essay editing services.
The graduating seniors in the International Business Internship Program have received over $5.4 million in financial aid and scholarships to attend college.
Resume Editing
Assistance
All participants in the IIP receive professional resume creation advice and help from Leadership Initiatives.
Resume Editing Assistance
One of the most important tools in the professional world is a clean, organized, and cohesive resume. As the first impression made on an employer, university, or other institution, a strong resume requires considerable thought and effort.
All participants in the International Business Internship Program receive professional resume creation advice and help from Leadership Initiatives to create a fantastic resume and highlight all the important activities and academics that colleges, universities, and employers are looking for.
After students create their resume, Leadership Initiatives pays for professional editors to go through the resume line by line and make corrections and suggestions.
The editors will improve grammar, diction, formatting, and make suggestions on content.
Leadership Initiatives also provides professionally-designed resume templates which allow students to easily copy and paste their content into an effective format easily.
Community
Service
LI will work to ensure that your work to transform lives is recognized.
Community Service
With participants volunteering their time each week to the betterment of communities worldwide, the IBIP program acts as a source of community service hours to fulfill requirements for groups like The National Honors Society.
Leadership Initiatives will work with your school and their community service program to ensure that your work to transform lives is recognized.
International Internship Participants participants have been accepted into Harvard, Stanford, Georgetown, George Washington, University of Chicago, Northwestern, MIT, and other top colleges in the globe, due in part to the unmatched experience gained through the program
Click here to request a letter to verify your service hours.
Personalized Team
Website
Leadership Initiatives creates a personalized website for each International Internship Program team highlighting their collaborative efforts with their partner in the International Business & Development Internship, International Law & Advocacy Internship, or International Public Health Internship.
The website displays your team’s solutions, grant proposal, photos of your partners, and illustrates the impact your team has had on the life and community of your partners. The website link is included in your letters of recommendation, allowing colleges to independently explore the phenomenal work done by each and every student.
Click below to view Youth Development Program websites.
Advanced Law & Trial Internship
Advanced Medical & Public Health
Advanced Medical Neuroscience Internship