The history of Washington Leadership Program (WLP)

1st WLP participant, Sudhanshu Dwivedi, who interned with Rep. Sherrod Brown (D-OH)

Each year the Washington Leadership Program (WLP) selects over 15 college students to participate in the eight-week summer program. The students receive two weeks of intensive leadership training and a six-week internship with a member of Congress or in a political office in Washington, DC.

Selection is highly competitive ---- as a result, participants in the program are some of the Indian American community’s brightest and best young stars.

The Center also introduces the students to today’s leaders through the Summer Speaker Series. Each week, guest speakers provide their perspectives on a broad variety of issues, supplementing the students’ experience.

The program has grown and gained respect from the Indian-American community at large, members of Congress and their staff and, most important, from the participants themselves.

Since 1995, WLP has placed 132 students, who have interned with 11 Senators, 46 Congressmen and eight other offices, making it the largest and most successful Asian-American internship program in Washington, D.C. This year, the program expanded its scope by sending six interns to visit India from Aug. 10 to 18 to understand the political process of the world’s largest democracy, interact with policymakers and think tanks.