Education

College of William and Mary, Class of 2013
Hometown
Charlottesville, Virginia
Class
Summer 2012

William Dahl joined the Knight Foundation as a communities program intern in 2012. He had recently returned from studying broad in La Plata, Argentina. Dahl served as an intern for the Commission of Memory located in Buenos Aires, a government program put in place to investigate and report human rights abuses. He studies International Relations at the College of William and Mary.

In William’s Words: I first heard of the Knight Foundation through an internship database. I clicked the link mostly out of curiosity over what they meant by “data analysis”, and it didn’t hurt that it would be a chance to go to Miami! After a phone and Skype interview, I soon found out a lot more; the Knight Foundation is a $2 billion dollar nonprofit dedicated to furthering the arts, sciences and community engagement, and a summer internship is a great opportunity to be a part of it.

When I think of what sets an internship at the Knight Foundation apart from other jobs, a few things come to mind. It’s a formal atmosphere—attire is business casual—but it’s a relaxed job in the sense that interns work at their own pace, have meals with each other and are made to feel by our supervisors that any ideas we have for the Foundation are welcome. Expect to have a lot of work to do—my assignment consist mainly of researching grant proposals and writing progress reports –and also expect to have lunches with program directors and even the CEO as you learn more about the Foundation and build relationships that will be important for a lifetime. You can also count on learning a lot, and rest assured that you don’t need to do anything to earn anyone’s respect or appreciation here—it’s already given.