Student Internship Spotlight: Ella Reither

Class of 2025

Major:

Political Science and International Relations

Internship:

National Center for Missing & Exploited Children

Duration:

10 months

Location:

Washington, D.C.

What were your main duties and responsibilities?

I was in the Missing Children Division and worked on cases related to family abductions and international criminal abductions. Each case has different needs every day. I performed social media searches to try to find lost or runaway children, talked to social services and local law enforcement about ongoing cases, coordinated with the FBI and the U.S. Marshals Service and made sure everyone had the right information and knew what resources we could provide. 

What was the highlight of your internship?

It’s difficult to deal with these cases that involve missing children. I worked on over 300 cases and a lot of them didn’t end well, so anything that did was a highlight for me! One example is when I convinced law enforcement to reopen a missing girl’s case, and now more resources will be available to help resolve it. It was awesome to know that I had a hand in helping get her case back on track, and that there might finally be a resolution for her and her family. 

What is your advice for students looking for internships?

Make a spreadsheet! Apply to a lot of places within your interest area, keep track of the status of your applications, who you’ve contacted, etc. You may not get the internship that year, but it’s always great to have a reservoir to pull from the next year. If you don’t know where to start, ask your professors, family, friends and the Center for Career Development. Find out where alumni from your school are working and get ideas that way. The more companies you can reach out to, the better!