Internships rescinded. Jobs lost. Foreign affairs students ask: What now?

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Yasmine Mirhaji had planned out her last three years at American University’s School of International Service meticulously, taking classes on diplomacy and power. Inspired by her parents’ experience fleeing Iran to the United States decades ago, she dreamed about joining the State Department, which deals in foreign policy, and had applied for an internship at the agency.

But moves by the Trump administration, in its first days in power, to slash funding and jobs across federal agencies has upended civil service prospects for scores of local college students, many of whom chose D.C. universities for their pipeline to federal and international careers.

First, Mirhaji, a 20-year-old junior, learned she’d have to reapply or start her internship search all over again. Then she wondered whether her degree was becoming obsolete. Now she is leaning toward law or graduate school, rather than trying to work in the federal government.

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“All my plans are scrapped,” said Mirhaji, who was raised in Westchester County, New York. “So many of the jobs our professors have proposed to us as potential opportunities don’t exist anymore.”

Mirhaji and the thousands of undergraduate and graduate students like her, who are spending tens of thousands of dollars to study international relations in D.C., have watched their career plans seemingly dissolve in recent weeks as the Trump administration takes steps at reducing the size of the federal government.

Some have been furloughed from federal agencies such as the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) or had internships pulled from the Treasury Department. Other students, like Mirhaji, are considering pivoting to new sectors or, for others, new fields altogether. And their colleges, some of which were established to prepare students to work in federal and international agencies such as USAID, are scrambling to find new opportunities for them.

Still, some college administrators in the D.C. region say their programs are not going anywhere, that educating mission-driven workers who want to help the needy or shape foreign policy and international relations will continue regardless of which agencies are cut or dismantled under Trump.

“Is it an existential threat to SIS or to the work we do collectively?” said Shannon Hader, dean of American’s School of International Service. “Absolutely not. But the level of chaos and trauma is higher than I’d predicted.”

D.C. is home to a number of top-ranked international affairs programs in the country and is a hub for current or hopeful government workers to pursue careers in development, Foreign Service and more. For many schools, the master’s programs are also important revenue generators, with some running upward of $100,000.

Across the region and country, international affairs administrators have fielded calls from concerned graduates in recent weeks, while organizing last-minute career panels for students who had Foreign Service tests canceled. They’re also considering retooling curriculum to focus more on private sector opportunities and extending admissions deadlines for those recently out of work.

“The whole higher-ed system is in shock,” said Michelle Hewlett, executive director of the Association of Professional Schools of International Affairs, which has 67 member schools globally.

In just the last week, Steven Radelet, director of Georgetown University’s Global Human Development program in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, said he’s received some 30 calls and dozens of emails from graduates. After speaking on a quickly scheduled panel earlier last week for students about finding jobs in the private sector or the World Bank, he later organized a similar Zoom for alumni.

“This is personal,” Radelet said. “They are personally attacking our alumni, our people, who have been public servants their whole lives.”

The program he runs is 10 years old and has 300 graduates, Radelet said, 25 percent of whom have lost their jobs or expect that they will. Some have student debt from their master’s; others have families and a mortgage. Radelet, a former chief economist for USAID, asked alumni who have switched careers to join a call on Friday to explain to other graduates how to transition into private companies or local and state governments.

Radelet wondered if the targeting of USAID could lead to fewer people enrolling in his program. He is already pondering curriculum changes to focus some classes on the work that international organizations, local governments and private foundations do to serve the poor and hungry – and away from federal agencies such as USAID.

At American’s School of International Service, Hader thinks the actions by Trump and Elon Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service could lead to a bump in applications from newly unemployed people or others who want no part of the current federal government but still want to pursue peace or humanitarian development through other means.

The school has extended the deadline for priority admissions, and will hold additional information sessions and is waiving its application fees for people displaced by their jobs in federal government.

“We’re not going to sit in a corner,” she said. “We’re going to lean in. The world has fundamentally shifted.”

Hader also urged her students, a number of whom have lost internships or jobs, not to lose hope. Roughly one-third of the school’s students go into government, she said, but the rest go into nonprofits or the private sector.

Last week, administrators organized a community forum on “dramatic changes and threats to USAID” and urged their 25,000 alumni worldwide to respond to LinkedIn messages from current students and alert staff to new openings.

On Wednesday, the school posted a guide on Instagram to navigating the “stark challenges” the community was facing. That included emailing career counselors their job status, applying for emergency funds and information for daily drop-in career advising.

But many students are struggling to figure out their next steps. Some graduate students, including those who have lined up jobs at agencies such as the State Department, declined to speak with a reporter because they worried doing so could put them at risk of losing those jobs.

One American University master’s student who had been furloughed from USAID said that despite the current turmoil, he believes in the mission and value of the School of International Service.

“It’s still worth it,” said the student, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of professional retribution. If he doesn’t work for the federal government, he said he’d pursue peace-building with nonprofits.

For Mirhaji, each day brings new anxieties.

She said she hopes to continue pursuing advanced degrees because she feels she could face higher scrutiny as a woman of color. She’s worried for her future and what her parents will think of the career path she chose that was supposed to be stable, but now seems precarious.

“We’re scared not because we’re entitled to anything,” Mirhaji said, “but because a lot of us have been sold an idea where the future is stable and America has a positive role in the world. We just want to be able to help make that happen.”

Dan Rosenzweig-Ziff is a reporter on The Washington Post’s Local Education team, where he covers higher education and youth culture in D.C., Maryland and Virginia. He previously covered national and international breaking news. He started at The Post in 2021 as a summer intern covering crime and criminal justice on the Metro desk.

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