Growing up in Hockessin, Del., Jessica McDowell, was a subscriber to the political science magazine Foreign Affairs for many years. This summer, the rising senior at the University of Pennsylvania is working as the publication’s editorial intern.Published by the Council on Foreign Relations, Foreign Affairs is a think-tank for political science and international relations research. The placement was a natural fit for McDowell, a dual-major in political science and history at Penn’s School of Arts & Sciences.

A first-generation college student, McDowell says her parents have always made sure that she, and her twin sister who is a dual psychology and criminal justice major at the University of Delaware, could get the kind of education that they never were able to access. 

McDowell, who started her internship in New York City in early June, says she gets to work on challenging projects side-by-side with the magazine’s staff. She assists with the website and editorial aspects of the magazine, from posting content to its social media accounts to designing graphics to go along with articles. 

“Even though I don’t really get to edit the articles themselves yet, since I’ve started here, it’s really amazed me how small the staff is, and how much I’ve become a part of that staff, even as an intern,” McDowell says. “Foreign Affairs is a widely respected magazine with a huge subscriber base, yet the editorial staff is probably only about a dozen people.” 

McDowell says she feels right at home in the tight-knit group at work.

One of the most exciting days that McDowell had so far is when the new issue of the magazine first arrived in the office.

“It hadn't been sent out to the subscribers yet, but just getting to hold it and see how happy and proud everyone in the office was, it was really cool,” McDowell says. 

After work hours, she enjoys experiencing New York, exploring everything that the city has to offer, from food festivals to Broadway shows. 

“I took my first subway ride a few weeks ago and ate my first slice of New York pizza,” McDowell says. 

Her summer internship wraps up in mid-August and as she faces her senior year, McDowell says she’s now at the point where she needs to figure out what she wants to do in life. 

“I’m at a crossroads. My first option is to follow the path I intended to take: getting a Ph.D. in political science and join the academic community that writes the articles that a magazine like Foreign Affairs would publish,” McDowell says. 

She adds what initially sparked her interest in her majors can be traced back to her appearance in the Kony 2012 video. 

Back in high school, McDowell became involved with Invisible Children, a non-profit organization that’s drawn attention to the Lord’s Resistance Army, a rebel army led by Joseph Kony, which abducted children from communities in Uganda, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan. A champion for the cause, she has raised more than $20,000 for the organization and its work. 

“It was a story that really stuck with me and that’s what made me passionate about studying international relations and human rights,” McDowell says. 

Her second option is to become a writer. 

At Penn, McDowell has gained solid journalism experience, which strengthened her application for the summer internship at the magazine.

In her freshman year, she joined The Daily Pennsylvanian on a whim and found herself writing about campus events, local restaurants and community service. She was also able to tackle some subjects such as religious life at Penn, race relations and mental health in an in-depth way, and she was hooked.

Soon, she advanced to the Deputy News Editor position, maintaining spreadsheets for story assignments, designing the newspaper, proofreading and mentoring junior reporters. 

As The Daily Pennsylvanian’s enterprise editor for the remainder of 2016, McDowell will continue to direct all long-form creative feature stories, manage up to eight reporters, coordinate with other team members to design online projects, train new writers and participate on its Editorial Board to help make executive decisions. 

Thanks to her experience at The Daily Pennsylvanian, she says she’s fallen in love with journalism and publishing, but says her summer internship will help determine her future. 

“Working at Foreign Affairs has allowed me to see a middle ground – it’s academic research, but it’s being published for wider, other-than-academic audiences,” she says. “My hope is that, by the end of the summer, it will help me decide which path I want to pursue.”