The James C. Gaither Junior Fellows Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace is designed to provide a substantive work experience for students who have a serious career interest in the area of international affairs.   ASSIGNMENTS: Gaither Junior Fellows provide research assistance to scholars working within Carnegie’s programs,. They have the opportunity to conduct research, contribute to op-eds, papers, reports, and books, edit documents, participate in meetings with high-level officials, contribute to congressional testimony and organize briefings attended by scholars, activists, journalists, and government officials Applications are accepted only from graduating college seniors or individuals who have graduated within the past academic year. No one will be considered who has started graduate studies (except those who have recently completed a joint bachelor’s/master’s degree program). Applicants should have completed a significant amount of coursework related to their discipline of interest. Language and other skills may also be required for certain assignments. The selection process for the program is very competitive. Accordingly, applicants should be of high academic quality. Qualifications for Gaither Junior Fellows may vary by program.   To apply, submit your completed application to UCLA's campus rep, Dr. Rebecca Blustein, by Jan 5, 2026. Application requirements: The application consists of applicant information (address, participating university, language skills, graduation date, etc.) along with five core components. A resume, a personal statement, two letters of recommendation, a writing sample, and your transcript. For the resume, we prefer that it be one-to-two pages, and it should reflect your research and writing experience as much as possible. For the personal statement, the applicant should discuss why you are applying for this job, what you hope to learn from it, how you think your experience and working style would serve you well as a research assistant, and why you have chosen to apply for the program you are applying for. For the writing sample, it must be three to five pages, and it may be either a completed work or an excerpt from a longer work. The writing sample must be accompanied by a brief explanation of now more than half of one page explaining why you chose that writing sample (note: the explanation is not counted towards the page limit of the writing sample). The writing sample can be on any topic, but we recommend that students submit a writing sample that is relevant to the program they are applying for either in subject matter or in style of analysis. For more information on what each Carnegie research program is working on, we recommend visiting https://carnegieendowment.org/programs-and-projects. For the transcript, please note that an unofficial transcript is preferred. For the letters of recommendation, these can be submitted by anyone whom the applicant wishes. We recommend that applicants choose recommenders who can speak directly to the applicant’s ability to write and support research projects.