A good place to start is by identifying your strengths and weaknesses and the kind of experience you want from the internship. If this is the first time that you will be traveling abroad, try to find an internship in a structured program or one with specific tasks that have been previously determined. This will make your job easier and maximize your learning and your performance. Unless you are pressed by an applications deadline, you must give yourself some months to find the internship that suits you best. A good exercise is to make a list of things that you'd like to be doing, and a list of activities that you feel you are good at, and find a way of including those two categories in your personal statement or in your cover letter.
Determination is an essential element of success.
These are questions that, if truthfully answered before you search for the internship, will determine the nature of your experience abroad. As soon as you have made up your mind to go abroad, you can apply for financial assistance, either through various Class Funds or by consulting your own department for such assistance. The section about funding includes summer grants and Fellowships earmarked for special projects. For further information about these student grants, you should consult the Alumni Council's Web site . Remember that some internships, especially those in international organizations and in the U.S. State Department, have early application deadlines .