<p>I spent a summer in college interning at a US Embassy overseas. Normally, I would not have been able to do this, since the State Department requires interns to pay for their own airfare to and from their overseas internship posting. But it just so happened that when I was chosen I was wrapping up a semester abroad, and the tickets from my study abroad location to my internship site were relatively cheap (and I already had a return ticket from my study abroad location to the US, and I was able to just change the date on that). Plus, my college gives every student $2000 to do a summer internship, so I was able to use that to support myself during the summer (housing and transportation to/from work was free with the internship but we had to buy our own food) and to buy the plane ticket (though the State Dept. does offer some paid internships, and two of the people I interned with were paid). </p>
<p>It was an amazing summer. Not only did I get to experience life within a US embassy abroad, something hardly anyone outside of the foreign service gets to do, but I had lots of time on the weekends to travel and see different parts of the country and go to the beach. I made new friends among the interns, the embassy people, the locals, and I got to practice my language skills. I had applied for the State Dept internship twice before that summer and both times been rejected, so I guess third time’s the charm.</p>