A Summer of Exploration

26 students are embarking on career building summer internships at prestigious posts across the nation through the Starr Center’s Explore America Program.

Washington College congratulates the 2025 Explore America Summer Internship awardees. This summer students will be heading to nationally renowned organizations, museums and institutions including the Brookings Institution, the Human Rights Campaign, the Library of Congress, the National Constitution Center, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and George Washington's Mount Vernon, among others.  

The 26 Washington College students who have been awarded an Explore America Summer Internship 2025 represent 18 majors, 20 minors, and all four class years. Twenty-three partner sites will host students in 2025, in a variety of different formats: remote, hybrid, and in-person. 

Sponsored by the Washington College Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience, the Explore America Summer Internship program is one of the most exciting and distinctive opportunities available to Washington College students — and characteristic of the hands-on learning that sets Washington College apart from other liberal arts institutions. The program matches students with full-time, fully paid summer internships at an array of leading cultural institutions and non-profits. In addition to providing paid jobs (awardees are granted a $5,250 summer stipend for 10 weeks of full-time work) and valuable experience, Explore America Internships introduce students to mentors who can change the course of their lives.  

“The Explore America program advances Washington College's mission of civic engagement by helping students put the tools of their liberal arts education to work making positive change in the world beyond campus,” said Adam Goodheart, Hodson Trust-Griswold Director of the Starr Center.  

Since its inception in 2011, the Starr Center's Explore America program has awarded more than $1.3 million to 278 Washington College students. Funding this year has come from an array of outside donors, as well as via Washington College's own Cater Society of Junior Fellows; the Goldstein Program in Public Affairs; and the Institute for Religion, Politics, and Culture. 

 

Placements for the 2025 Explore America summer internships include:  

Zach Affeldt '25, Brookings Institution 

Ziggy Angelos '25, Easterseals of Delaware and Maryland's Eastern Shore 

Jess Barr '26, Delaware Center for Horticulture 

Nora Beebe '26, American Philosophical Society 

Eleanora Cardillo '26, Human Rights Campaign 

Mary Clymer '27, Society for Women's Health Research 

NY Coles-Calloway '26, George Washington's Mount Vernon 

Riley Dauber '25, The American Scholar 

Mattie Gilliam '26, Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery 

Jove Gleason '26, Library of Congress–Literary Initiatives Office 

Lindsay Hamilton '26, Hagley Museum and Library 

Quinn Hammon '25, Winterthur Museum, Garden, and Library 

Erin Helgerman '26, Easterseals of Delaware and Maryland's Eastern Shore 

Reagan Klein '27, Public Religion Research Institute 

Olivia Long '26, National Constitution Center 

Liam Siobhan Luckey '27, New York Historical Society 

Alexa Martinis '28, Longwood Gardens 

Isabel McCreary '27, Longwood Gardens 

Victoria Nasibi '26, U.S. House of Representatives–Office of the Historian 

Emma Sager '27, Smithsonian American Art Museum 

Caelan Scott '27, Maryland Center for History and Culture 

Jevon Smalls '25, National Park Service–Harpers Ferry 

Xavier Smalls '25, National Park Service–Harpers Ferry 

Emily Stiles '27, Maryland State Archives 

Melchior Tuerk '26, Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum 

Madeline York '27, National Aquarium 

 

- Dominique Ellis Falcon