Semester of Service Volunteer - Commercial Assistant
What you'd do
Make an impact while you learn. The Semester of Service Program offers students a volunteer project-based opportunity to support Federal missions, gaining hands-on experience & valuable career-ready skills. Students must be enrolled at least half-time in an accredited trade school, technical or vocational institute, junior college, college, university, or other accredited educational institution & participation must be with the permission of the institution at which the student is enrolled.
Major duties
This vacancy announcement will be open from 07/30/20206 to 08/05/2026 or when 25 applications have been received. The vacancy will close on whichever day the first of these conditions are met. If the application limit is reached on the same day the announcement opened, the open and close date will be the same. Candidates are encouraged to read the entire announcement before submitting their application packages. Students will research and identify the top five commercial sectors and each sector's major trading partners for each country in AF/E (Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, Uganda, Sudan, South Sudan, Kenya, and Tanzania) using open-source information and AI while working with ECON sections of U.S. Embassies. Students will present the information in white paper format including sector analyses of local/regional industry leaders amidst a backdrop of regional political and economic dynamics, including best practice AI prompts and research strategies to ensure continuous analysis after the conclusion of their project. The project will help the section identify key opportunities for commercial collaboration as well as flag competition for United States industries in the region. It will also expose students to commercial trade and strategy work within the State Department and present key networking opportunities with Embassy personnel. This project requires In-Person reporting.
What you need to qualify
Applicants will be considered based on their knowledge, skills or abilities related to project needs. Specifically, applicants should preferably have business, trade, or economics major, and knowledge of AI sufficient to do searches and design prompts.
Before you apply
Federal applications are different: your resume should be 3–5 pages and mirror the language of this announcement. Read our federal resume guide first — it's the #1 reason qualified people get screened out.
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