UNC Semester in Washington welcomed four ECU students

GREENVILLE, NC   —   Students from East Carolina University spent the summer interning at ABC News, the National Institutes of Health and the Federal Reserve Bank as part of UNC’s Semester in Washington program.

The students, Carmin Gabrielle Black, Christopher Weston Harris, William Neil Morgan and Matthew Stephenson Herrmann, were congratulated Friday by ECU administrators and the Board of Trustees.

“These students have a chance to see leaders and action and develop their abilities to network and make contacts of their own,” said Dorothy Muller, assistant to ECU Provost James Smith. “These internships have been superior, and these are superior students. They didn’t do copying and stapling; they did the real stuff.”

Carmin Black is a communications major who interned at ABC News this summer. She had an opportunity to interview Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.).

Christopher Harris is a biology and philosophy double major. He interned at the National Institutes of Health in an immunology lab.

Neil Morgan is a finance and Spanish double major who worked at a Federal Credit Union where a Spanish-speaking supervisor helped him to develop banking vocabulary in Spanish while working with clientele.

This fall, Matthew Herrmann, a Political Science major, served on a congressional fellowship with Congressman Walter B. Jones, Jr. While in Washington, Herrman attended chief justice confirmation hearings.

Approximately 30 students from universities from the UNC system participate each semester in the new system-wide program. Leslie Omoruyi, ECU professor of political science, taught the Washington Experience seminar for all UNC students that participate in the internship program. In addition to the internship, the students assessed health care policy, discussed ethics issues and talked about the federal reserve banks, foreign policy and terrorism.

When in Washington, D.C., students live in the Congressional apartment building leased from The Washington Intern Student Housing Foundation, located in the walker-friendly Capitol Hill neighborhood. Four students from ECU will participate in the program this spring.

Application reviews are now underway for the summer and fall 2006 students. Those interested should be a junior or senior, and should have at least a 3.0 grade point average.