Osgood Center for International Studies

The Osgood Center is a non-profit educational organization that offers short-term foreign policy and experiential learning programs for graduate, college, and, occasionally, high school students from around the globe. Regular attendance cost is extremely competitive with comparable programs, and limited scholarships and group rates are available. Please inquire directly for more information.

At the Osgood Center, our mission is to advance understanding of public affairs and contemporary international and domestic issues. We positively affect the lives of our participants and prepare them to be better global citizens through quality educational experiences that emphasize short-term active engagement and experiential learning programs such as academic seminars and internships. Our vision is a generation of young people who strive to understand public policy issues and work to find creative solutions to global problems.

We are known for the personal attention we provide our program participants and for the customized instructional model that we utilize to help them achieve their academic and career goals.

Among our programs are:

•            The Osgood Center contracts with educational organizations to provide various kinds of programming in the nation’s capital. This often allows students to explore international relations, examine global business relationships, debate important national public policy issues, participate in the annual fall Model United Nations program (www.nmun.org), the UN Security Council Simulation in the spring or even create their own professional development program to advance their academic or career goals. 

 •            Summer Symposium on Foreign Policy and Global Economic Issues is an annual academic seminar incorporating the best practices of experiential learning. The seminar is often enhanced by groups of students from the U.S., Morocco, China, Romania, Germany, Italy, Nepal, and Turkmenistan to name only a few. A major attraction of this program is that participants can register for 6 weeks or come for just one or two weeks, depending upon their preferences and schedule.

 •            Washington Experience Leadership and Professional Development Internship Program. This highly regarded program is for students who seek a customized internship experience in any major field who can benefit from the personal attention from the academic leaders of the Osgood Center.  The leaders work with each student individually to ensure a good internship match, proper site monitoring, tailored programming, and academic rigor that makes the experience worthy of academic credit at a student’s home institution. Internships are available for fall, winter, spring or summer terms/semester. See our website for more information.

 •            The Osgood Center also has opportunities for college students to intern directly with the Osgood Center and to be involved in some of these high quality program activities.

The Osgood Center is named after Robert E. Osgood, a highly respected expert in foreign policy and the author of several significant texts on international relations, and his wife Gretchen A. Osgood, a highly respected public servant who spent 24 years working for the Public Health Service.

At the Osgood Center, we respect international boundaries as we build bridges. Come join us!