This summer, I received support from the Undergraduate Experiential Learning Opportunities Support Fund as an intern with the U.S. Foreign Commercial Service (FCS) at the U.S. Consulate General Montreal. While I did not receive any academic credit for the internship, I still loved the experience and would readily do it again.
The FCS is the trade promotion arm of the U.S. Department of Commerce’s International Trade Administration and connects U.S. exporters to foreign business opportunities. This internship provided me with an invaluable opportunity to see the inner workings of international trade and participate firsthand in one of the world’s most reputable diplomatic corps. The opportunities that I was exposed to during this internship made me realize that diplomacy was a career path that I would be very interested in pursuing, and working in this environment allowed me to foster a network of key connections in this field who provided me with valuable career advice and letters of recommendation.
At McGill, I major in Political Science (Honours) and minor in Economics. I applied to the FCS internship because I was interested in the diplomatic components it involved, but after I took a class on international political economy framed through the lens of multinational corporations, I immediately realized that the economic arm of trade and diplomacy interested me more. Although I had, up until that point, always wanted to pursue law school after my undergraduate degree, I started to become even more excited for my upcoming internship because I realized that it could be the perfect opportunity to explore a different career path in which I had great interest.
During the internship, my main responsibilities were to provide market research and analysis on U.S.-Quebec commercial opportunities, conduct trade outreach, provide logistical support for events, and draft briefing memos and meeting minutes for senior Consulate officials, including American Consuls General in Montreal and Quebec City.
One of my proudest achievements during this internship was participating in and drafting the final report for an International Partner Search (IPS), which is a service provided by the FCS to American companies looking to expand in certain markets—Quebec in this case. I was given a set of criteria to look for in potential partner companies, and then conducted research into relevant companies’ specialties, portfolios, and product offerings to see if a partnership was appropriate. I then reached out to these companies in both English and French and corresponded with high-level executives to discuss further options. After the outreach portion, I drafted a final report detailing all companies contacted, their respective levels of interest, and evaluated the client company’s prospects in the Quebec market. This responsibility gave me tremendous insight into areas like market research and international trade.
A key highlight of the internship was helping to organize and participating in a reception set up by our office for Oakland County, Michigan that sought to connect their economic development agencies with Quebec-based companies specialized in aerospace and electric vehicles. In order to send official invitations, I found the corporate titles of over 300 invitees and created the final event programme and briefing material for both the Michigan officials and the Quebec company representatives. Attending and assisting with the event was an extremely valuable experience, because I got to see how the FCS connected U.S. exporters with foreign commercial opportunities and felt like I contributed to the fulfillment of this goal.
One key challenge with this internship was working independently with little to no guidance at times. One of my first responsibilities was to produce a report for my supervisors detailing key players in Quebec’s critical and strategic minerals (CSM) market as well as their current and upcoming projects. I knew absolutely nothing about mining, so I compartmentalized my responsibilities to enable an easier approach. First, I obtained the necessary surface-level understanding of extraction and refinement processes for minerals like lithium, nickel, and graphite, which enabled me to better understand the companies I was profiling. Then, I used a wide range of sources including magazines, news outlets, policy papers, and government press conferences to gather information about key mining projects for Quebec’s economy. Eventually, I compiled all this information and wrote up the final report, which included policy recommendations relevant to American foreign policy goals and a detailed analysis of the CSM value chain.
Overall, this internship had an extremely positive impact on my university experience by enabling me to explore a very interesting career option as well as gain key connections and work experience in this area. I would like to thank the anonymous donors who funded my internship award which allowed me to receive compensation for an otherwise unpaid internship. Had I not received this support, I likely would have had to pursue other internships that I was less interested in for the sake of finances. Thank you very much for allowing me to experience this amazing opportunity!
