THE WASHINGTON LEADERSHIP PROGRAM
"ONE OF THE BEST PROGRAMS OF ITS KIND ON THE HILL."
RICHARD GEPHARDT
The WLP is a national non-profit organization that is developing the next generation of American leadership from the South Asian community. Our program takes promising college students and places them in Congressional offices and government agencies for an eight-week summer internship accompanied by a structured leadership curriculum. Students then complete a leadership project applying their learning from the summer and are inducted into a leadership community currently made up of nearly 200 alumni from the 18 years of the program. Former Congressional leader Richard Gephardt has called it “one of the best programs of its kind on the Hill.”
Since 1995, the WLP has given nearly 200 South Asian American students the opportunity to intern in Washington, DC. In addition to the internship, participants attend meetings and events to fully expose them to the range of public service careers in Washington, DC. Past events have included meetings with South Asian American elected officials and public servants, discussions with policy experts and networking opportunities.
THE 2022
WLP PROGRAM
The 2022 WLP internship program will run from June 11th – August 5th, 2022. Undergraduate students who are US citizens or legal permanent residents are encouraged to apply. Selection to the WLP is highly competitive and not limited to students pursuing political or social science majors. The backgrounds of past participants have ranged from pre-med to art history and social work.
Interns will receive a stipend of $2,000 and will be required to complete writing assignments and attend events approximately two evenings per week during the internship. The deadline to apply for the WLP is January 9, 2022. Finalists will be contacted for a telephone interview and all applicants will be notified of final selections in February 2022. Should you have any questions or would like further information about the program, please contact us at wlp@thewlp.com
THE WLP EXPERIENCE
The WLP provides a unique summer experience for our participants - the dynamism of each summer is partially due to the curriculum but mostly due to the students themselves. You can learn more about the WLP experience by reading the participants' own accounts of their summer.
WLP ALUMNI NETWORK
After the WLP scholars complete their internships, they are inducted into an alumni community of nearly 200 individuals who share a common bond in the unique experience of the WLP. Alumni are active leaders in a diverse fields including law, medicine, business, academia, government, the nonprofit sector and even entertainment. The alumni community is maintained through email distribution lists, local events, and WLP reunions. More services are planned to make the post-WLP experience more rich. You can find out what our alumni are doing now through our alumni news and leadership profiles.