Student interviews and blogs document the impact of the Oxy-at-the-U.N. Program under the guidance of director Cynthia Rothschild.

Program Overview

The William and Elizabeth Kahane United Nations Program at Occidental College (Oxy-at-the-U.N.) complements an intellectual foundation of two academic courses with a demanding full-time internship at UN-related agencies or country missions. 

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Academic Program

Two academic courses, including the academic internship and speakers series:

• DWA 401: Special Topics: UN ~ 4 credits
• DWA 402: The United Nations and Conflict Prevention:  Actors, Architecture, Tools, Practice ~ 4 credits
• DWA 403: The UN Experience ~ 8 credits (Internships)

No portion of Oxy-at-the-U.N. may be taken Credit/No Credit.

Internship Examples

• United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
• World Tourism Organization
• Guatemala 

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• United Kingdom 

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• Malta 

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• Costa Rica 

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• Rwanda 

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• Honduras 

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• United Nations Development Programme
• UNICEF
• U.N. Millenium Campaign
• UNFPA
• U.N. Women

Eligibility​

• 3.0 GPA; DWA 102 and Econ 101, plus a minimum of one additional course on international politics.
• Demonstrated commitment to the study of international issues.
• Junior in any major at the time of application; Senior standing during the program 
• Appropriate and well-articulated scholarly purposes for participation demonstrated in all parts of the application.
• Neither on academic or disciplinary probation nor under investigation for violations which may result in probation between application and departure.
• All holds cleared with campus departments and offices before leaving campus.

Housing

Students live in shared double rooms at the 92Y Residence on the upper east side, 3 blocks from Central Park and near local transportation.

Cost

You will be billed with the following:

• Occidental tuition
• Shared double room housing fee
• Insurance (required for international students and those whose personal plans do not cover them in New York)

You will not be billed for:

• A meal plan. However, the actual cost of meals in NY is estimated at $4,200. Financial Aid will repackage the semester cost of attendance accordingly and adjust aid packages in accordance with policy. A Financial Aid officer will determine how your package may be adjusted depending upon your needs. Please contact the Financial Aid Office with further questions.

Dates

Tentative Fall 2020 Dates:

• New York City; Manhattan. Generally, internships are located in and around Midtown.

Faculty Director

Cnthia Rothschild  is the on-site faculty director of Oxy-at-the-U.N.  Rothschild is a writer, a trainer, and an advocate whose work has revolved around and traveled through the UN for over two decades.  In recent years, she’s been a consultant with a focus on UN advocacy and policy, sexual rights, LGBTI issues, women human rights defenders, religious fundamentalisms, clampdowns on civil society, and HIV & AIDS. Her UN experience has been centered on the Human Rights Council/Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), and the Commission on the Status of Women.  In 2011 and in 2015, Cynthia consulted with OHCHR, where she made significant contributions to the UN’s two groundbreaking reports on discrimination and violence based on sexual orientation and gender identity. In the mid-2000s, Cynthia worked with various NGOs to promote women’s rights and human rights in UN reform processes, including in the creation of the Human Rights Council and in the transition from the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) to UN Women. She had previously worked at UNIFEM in areas related to HIV/AIDS and CEDAW.   She’s worked with many NGOs inside and outside the US to create and support activist engagement in the UN system. Contact:  rothschildc@oxy.edu

Rothschild's writing includes:

• Denigration, Distraction and Detraction: Forging Ahead, Even in Crisis
• Sex at Dusk and the Mourning After: Sexuality Policy in the Obama Years
• Human Rights Council: Women Monitor Advances and Note Concerns
• Gendering Documentation: A Manual for and about Women Human Rights Defenders.
• Written Out: How Sexuality is Used to Attack Women's Organizing

Assistant Director

A native of France, Jacques Fomerand studied law and graduated in political science from the Institut d'Etudes Politiques in Aix en Provence. He completed his graduate studies at the City University of New York where he earned a Ph.D. degree in political science with a specialization in comparative government and international organization. Joining the United Nations in 1977, Professor Fomerand followed economic and social questions in the Office of the Under-Secretary-General of the former Department for International Economic and Social Affairs (DIESA). He was Chief of the Inter-Organizational Co-operation Section of DIESA when he was reassigned to the United Nations University in 1992.  Contact:  jfomerand@oxy.edu

Resources at Occidental

The faculty of the Diplomacy and World Affairs department is an invaluable resource about the academic requirements and content of the Oxy-at-the-U.N. Program. In partnership with the DWA department, Marisa Grover Mofford, Associate Director, International Programs Office leads the application process, pre-departure information, and on-site vendor communications. Contact: mofford@oxy.edu

Program History

More than 400 Oxy students have participated in the Kahane Oxy-at-the-U.N.program since it was founded by Professor George Sherry in 1986. Students intern in an agency or related organization to the United Nations or a foreign mission to the U.N., and are firsthand observers of major events on the international agenda. It is a fast-moving experience, challenging students to combine internship responsibilities with the related course work.

Established in 1945, the United Nations continues to deal with the new and ongoing challenges of security and development in the 21st-century context of globalization and unprecedented technological change. While some of the world's population has benefitted from these transformations, parts of the developing world continue to lag behind. The search for ways to narrow this gap is at the heart of the work of the United Nations as students arrive here each fall.

In September 2010, Occidental President Jonathan Veitch announced a $500,000 lead gift from Occidental trustee Bill Kahane '70 and his wife, Elizabeth, toward a permanent endowment for the program.  In April 2014, the Kahane's further pledged $5.5 million to endow the program.  This generous support not only provides a permanent endowment for the program, but it will also increase student scholarship support, give students greater access to cultural offerings in New York, support student travel to Washington, D.C., and make it possible to bring U.N. programming back to the Occidental campus.