University Wins Honors for Washington, D.C. Partnership

11/12/2015
By Jill Gambon

Political science major MacKenzie Mahoney recalls visiting campus as a high school senior and hearing about a program that would allow her to spend a semester interning and studying in Washington, D.C.  That’s all Mahoney, who had a longstanding interest in public policy, needed to hear to firm up her college plans. She decided to enroll at UMass Lowell with a goal of spending a semester studying in the nation’s capital.

“From my freshman year on, I built my schedule so I could go to The Washington Center my junior year,” says Mahoney, who spent the fall 2014 semester in Washington, D.C. “I’m so glad I did it. It was an awesome experience.”

Mahoney is one of more than 150 UMass Lowell students who have studied at The Washington Center for Internships and Academic Seminars (TWC), a nonprofit that combines hands-on professional experience with classroom learning. Students earn academic credit for taking intensive seminars with policy experts, media professionals and elected leaders and completing internships on Capitol Hill and around the city.

UMass Lowell has been sending students to the program for more than two decades. In recognition of its commitment to the program, the university recently received TWC’s “Public Institution of the Year Award.”

“This program gives our students an opportunity to really experience what professional life will be like after graduation. It takes them out of their comfort zone and puts them in the middle of a very vibrant and important city and introduces them to all kinds of new opportunities,” says Francis Talty, assistant dean of the College of Fine Arts Humanities and Social Sciences.

During her four-month stay, Mahoney shared a TWC apartment with three other young women from colleges across the country. She spent four days a week interning at the National Defense University in Washington and one day each week attending seminars on such topics as leadership, advocacy and public policy.

“It was intense. It was a great atmosphere. Everyone there was as driven as you were,” she says.

Nicholas Imperillo, a senior majoring in homeland security studies, spent summer 2015 at TWC. He interned at Washington’s Metropolitan Police Department, one of the 10 largest local law enforcement agencies in the country. Working for an assistant chief in the Strategic Services Bureau, his assignments included helping rewrite lesson plans for the police academy and assisting with the startup of a community engagement project that brought citizens and law enforcement officers together.  

“I got to work with all levels of leadership. It was eye-opening,” says Imperillo, a member of the Honors College who has been accepted into the Criminal Justice master’s program. 

Imperillo says a benefit of the program was getting to know and learn from students from other universities. At night, he and his roommates would come home and compare notes about their internships.

“We all had stories to share,” he says.

“They get to meet other students from around the world and successful people in careers that are relevant to their studies at UMass Lowell,” Talty adds.

In addition to the network of contacts he made at his internship and through the seminars, Imperillo said he came home with new ideas about career direction. As a result of his internship, he is considering applying to the Massachusetts State Police Academy. 

Similarly, Mahoney said her experience opened up new career possibilities. She discovered a passion for public advocacy through the seminars she attended.

“I thought I wanted to go into politics and government. I let go of my preconceived notions and I’m redirecting myself.  I know now I want to go into public interest law,” says Mahoney, who is applying to law school.

Mahoney, who is also an Honors College student, describes her career epiphany as a “quarter-life crisis” – a theme she parlayed into her selection as TWC commencement speaker.

“It was a little stressful but the best experience of my life,” she says of delivering the speech before a crowd of 400.