Congressman Pete Stark Health Policy Internship

The Academy offers paid internships for students studying for, or interested in, careers in social insurance. Students are given an opportunity to work with Members from the Academy in outstanding organizations in the DC area. Placement in organizations varies from year to year, depending on project need and funding. Through weekly seminars and other events, interns are introduced to the Academy’s membership—an interdisciplinary group made up of the nation’s leading experts on social insurance policy—and engage with a wide range of social insurance policy topics.

The Academy’s program covers seven distinct internships named to honor Members in a particular field of social insurance policy. The program consists of a 12-week summer internship that usually spans May to August.

The Pete Stark internship is for graduate students interested in developing, advocating, and implementing in Congress and/or Executive Branch agencies legislation, regulations, and policy initiatives to improve health coverage and quality in the U.S. in an efficient, cost-effective manner. Students from all disciplines (political science, business, communications, public policy, social policy, health policy etc.) are encouraged to apply to this 12-week summer semester internship in Washington, DC. Projects will emphasize policy research and design, and/or related activities around current health care issues facing the federal government.

Our most recent internship placements have included:

• House Committee on Ways & Means
• National Academy of Social Insurance
• National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare (NCPSSM)
• Senate Committee on Finance

Congressman Stark served as the Chair or Ranking Member of the Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health for 28 years, helping enact (often on a bipartisan basis) major improvements in health insurance, Medicare, consumer health protections, cost savings, and anti-fraud measures. It was his hope that the scholar-applicant for this internship would share his interests in using legislative, oversight, and administrative tools to improve health coverage and quality in an efficient, cost-effective manner.