Sydney Bergman of Newton, was selected to participate in a summer study placement with the Embassy of the United States of America in London through the U.S. Department of State.
Bergman will be a fourth year history major at Grinnell College this fall. She was assigned to the Consular Section – Immigration Visa Unit at the U.S. Embassy London for eight weeks.
The U.S. Department of State Student Internship Program is an unpaid, intensive internship offering U,S. citizen undergraduate and graduate students a chance to witness and participate in formulation and implementation of U.S. foreign policy, working closely with representatives of the U.S. Department of State’s Foreign and Civil Services. The program is both professionally and academically beneficial, providing participants with hands-on experience in a federal agency setting, and insight into the substance and daily operations of U.S. foreign policy and immigration.
With her assignment to the Immigration Visa Unit, Bergman studied the immigrant visa process with a view to conducting process improvement, knowledge management, and customer service augmentation. Duties included learning about immigration law and reviewing case flow and pedestrian traffic analysis, updating and/or writing new Standard Operating Procedures and other documents, analyzing and reporting on fraud trends and work on other special projects.
Bergman is a 2014 NHS graduate.