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AEI internships provide students with an opportunity to learn from some of America’s most renowned scholars, economists, political scientists, and foreign policy specialists conducting research on today’s prominent public policy questions. The Institute provides an intellectually stimulating environment, rich with critical thinking, scholarship, and lively debate.
AEI internships are available in the Fall, Spring, and Summer to experienced undergraduate students, graduate students, and recent graduates. A minimum 3.0 GPA is required; however, most successful candidates have at least a 3.5 GPA.
Due to the volume of applications, only candidates selected to move forward in the interview process will be contacted.
We accept applications from candidates who are authorized to work in the US via an F-1 or a J-1 visa, provided the internship satisfies their program requirements. If your authorization to work in the US limits the number of hours you may intern or how long you may work in the US, please include this information in your cover letter.
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The American Enterprise Institute (AEI) seeks a communications and marketing systems intern to assist with promoting AEI’s research to its constituents. This includes using our automated email marketing system to prepare and send articles and newsletters, using our customer-relationship management database to gather appropriate mailing lists, researching and updating constituent contact information, and helping with other special projects. While some data entry is required, the intern will also work on broader projects such as facilitating marketing automation, curating email content, and analyzing and improving the effectiveness of AEI’s email communications to its constituents....
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Academic Programs connects undergraduate institutions, faculty, and students across the country to the work of the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) and the broader public policy world. The Academic Programs intern is responsible for supporting the planning and execution of program events at AEI and on college campuses, compiling internal surveys, and aiding the team in preparation for upcoming Summer and Winter Honors Programs. Other responsibilities might include researching college campuses, managing databases, and providing logistical support for events hosted in Washington, DC, and virtually. Strong candidates will demonstrate familiarity with and an appreciation...
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The FREE Initiative is a national collaborative outreach and educational resourcing effort led by AEI scholar Ian Rowe. The FREE Initiative disseminates insights about the crucial roles of family, religion, education, and entrepreneurship in developing the rising generation of young Americans. FREE is also building and catalyzing a growing network of exemplary leaders from across the nation who use their spheres of influence to revitalize community life and instill a sense of agency in the next generation.
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The American Enterprise Institute (AEI) Coalitions team helps AEI scholars connect their research with audiences inside and outside Washington, DC. We focus on getting scholarly work from the website to the community. Interns must have a startup mentality and an ability to identify new ways to add value across the organization. The most successful interns will be interested in and familiar with AEI scholars’ work, exhibit strong writing and organizational skills, and be curious about nonprofit management and public relations.
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Intern in the press office of the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), a distinguished Washington, DC, think tank. Learn about strategic media communication, track our scholars’ research, and familiarize yourself with the media landscape.
AEI is a great place to learn about the interaction between government and media. Join a select intern program that offers unique learning experiences such as exposure to research in foreign policy, politics, economics, technology, and education; instruction about the media industry; and personal mentoring by the press team....
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The accounting team at the American Enterprise Institute oversees the organization’s budget and operations. This internship provides a hands-on opportunity to learn about the nonprofit financial environment. The intern will assist with day-to-day activities, account-analysis schedules, preparation of detailed account schedules for the annual financial audit and tax filing, accounts payable and accounts receivable, financial reports, and other accounting processes as required. The ideal intern candidate is a great team player with organizational skills, attention to detail, and a strong knowledge of Microsoft Excel. Candidates who are able to participate in the program on an in-person basis...
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The American Enterprise Institute (AEI) Events team ensures that the more than 1,200 public and private events held annually at AEI’s headquarters are executed flawlessly. AEI scholars and staff turn to the Events team to maximize the quality of all aspects of events, including setup, audience attendance, audiovisual production, catering, registration, metrics, and billing. As the Events intern, you’ll play a crucial role in supporting AEI’s mission to foster insightful dialogue and executing impactful events that shape the future of public policy.
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The Editing Services department at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) is responsible for editing and coordinating publications, event materials, and other projects and assisting with the promotion of scholars’ work. An intern in this department will assist team members with copyediting and proofreading, coordinating AEI book promotion, maintaining archives, and completing other communication-related tasks. Candidates should have excellent editing and writing skills, strong attention to detail, knowledge about media and current events, great organizational skills, and an interest in communications and marketing. Experience working with publications and with editorial style guides...
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The Development department at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) is the organization’s fundraising apparatus, attracting and managing financial support for all AEI initiatives and operations. AEI is supported by individuals, foundations, and corporations that share AEI’s core values—free people, free markets, and American global leadership—and engage with the Institute through private and public events, publications, personal meetings, and more.
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The office of the president at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) seeks an intern for the coming semester. Robert Doar, AEI president, is a former social-service administrator whose primary scholarly interest is poverty. He is an active and respected participant in the ongoing national debate about social spending and welfare reform.
Mr. Doar and his staff support the work of AEI’s scholars and promote the Institute’s fundamental values of limited government, economic...
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The American Enterprise Institute’s Center on Opportunity and Social Mobility (COSM) seeks a driven, research-oriented intern for summer 2026. The intern will work closely with and staff to research, identify, and promote policies that improve opportunity and mobility for low-income Americans. COSM scholars study the determinants of economic mobility and human flourishing in America through empirically driven and policy-informing research.
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The American Enterprise Institute’s Center on Opportunity and Social Mobility seeks a driven, research-oriented candidate for its workforce development team. The vocation, career, and work intern will work closely with Senior Fellow Brent Orrell and staff to research the intersectional domain of workforce development policy.
Current projects include analyzing the present and future of work, economic trends in response to artificial intelligence, the skills...
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The American Enterprise Institute’s Center for Technology, Science, and Energy (CTSE) seeks a driven, research-oriented intern. The intern will work closely with Senior Fellow M. Anthony Mills and CTSE staff to research the relationship between the federal government and the scientific research establishment, the role of expertise in democracy, and the history and impact of federal science policy. Intern duties will include assisting with a book manuscript, conducting literature reviews, retrieving and analyzing data, editing and drafting materials, discussing research ideas, organizing and assisting with the execution of conferences and seminars, and providing background research for reports...
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The American Enterprise Institute’s Center for Technology, Science, and Energy (CTSE) seeks a driven, research-oriented intern.
The intern will work closely with Senior Fellow M. Anthony Mills and CTSE staff to support the team’s cutting-edge research at the intersection of data, public opinion, technology policy, and morality in the age of AI. The data intern will perform a variety of tasks related to processing novel survey data about Americans’ attitudes toward AI:
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The American Enterprise Institute (AEI) seeks an in-person intern for its technology policy studies program, which focuses on advancing policies to encourage innovation, competition, and growth in technology and seeks to minimize unintended consequences amid the rise of disruptive technology, such as artificial intelligence. The intern will assist AEI’s technology policy team with the program’s daily research and administrative activities and the tech policy newsletter.
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The American Enterprise Institute’s Housing Center is seeking an intern to support the research of Senior Fellows Edward J. Pinto and Tobias Peter, along with Arthur Gailes, on domestic housing markets, mortgage lending (historical and current), and financial policy reform.
Primary responsibilities include maintaining the center’s indexes and working with the nation’s premier housing datasets; supporting research through data management, retrieval, and analysis;...
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The American Enterprise Institute seeks an intern who will assist Senior Fellow Daniel A. Cox, director of the Survey Center on American Life. Dr. Cox is an expert on polling and public opinion and specializes in survey research, politics, generational change and identity, and religion. The intern will have the opportunity to work on a range of public opinion projects and gain exposure to various survey analysis techniques and polling methodologies, with an emphasis on studying the growing gender divide in public opinion among young people for a forthcoming book by Dr. Cox.
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The American Enterprise Institute (AEI) seeks an intern who will assist Senior Fellow Gary J. Schmitt and Senior Fellow Jonah Goldberg, among other scholars in AEI’s Social, Cultural, and Constitutional Studies department. Dr. Schmitt researches the American presidency, the U.S. Constitution and its principles, and American civic life. Mr. Goldberg conducts research on American conservatism while producing frequent political analysis on current events.
Responsibilities for this...
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The American Enterprise Institute (AEI) seeks an in-person intern to provide research and administrative support to the Economic Policy Studies department. The economic policy intern will have the opportunity to do quantitative analysis, background research, fact-checking, and editing for articles and ongoing academic research projects on issues related to applied economics and public finance. The intern will also assist with live, in-person AEI events on timely public policy issues.
The ideal...
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The American Enterprise Institute seeks an intern for the AEIdeas blog. The intern will have two primary responsibilities: (1) Assist with administrative maintenance of AEIdeas, such as by editing, formatting posts, and searching for applicable media (photos, videos, charts, etc.) and (2) assist with editing- and research-related tasks for Senior Fellow James Pethokoukis’s various writing projects and podcast interviews. The latter task may include collecting policy information from journalistic and academic sources, preparing for Political Economy podcast interviews, and providing editorial assistance for Faster, Please!, Mr. Pethokoukis’s Substack newsletter. This position...