{"id":253077,"date":"2026-07-27T17:49:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T17:49:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/253077\/"},"modified":"2026-07-27T17:49:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T17:49:10","slug":"internship-highlight-a-summer-in-turkiye-with-the-united-nations-development-programme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/253077\/","title":{"rendered":"Internship Highlight: A summer in T\u00fcrkiye with the United Nations Development Programme"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"HickeySix years ago, Matthew Hickey (MID ’26) walked onto Pitt’s campus as an undergraduate with a curiosity for languages and a habit of chasing ideas that didn’t always fit cleanly in a syllabus. This spring, he graduated with his Master of International Development (MID) from the School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA), and just days later he was in Istanbul, beginning an internship as a junior researcher with the United Nations Development Programme<\/a> (UNDP).<\/p>\n

“It was a privilege to support the Gender and Development team at the Istanbul Regional Hub, where I met coworkers and interns from all over the world,” Hickey said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Throughout the summer, he gathered data on women in government and public administration across 19 countries in Europe and Central Asia. The work fed directly into the Equal Future Platform, a regional knowledge hub that provides data, analysis, good practices, and resources to inform researchers, policymakers, and the public on gender equality and women’s representation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has been deeply rewarding to see my research continue to grow into practical, policy-relevant work at the regional level,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"HickeyHickey also volunteered at the UN T\u00fcrkiye booth during the Global Zero Waste Forum, where he received a Letter of Appreciation from UN Resident Coordinator in T\u00fcrkiye, Babatunde A. Ahonsi. He credits much of his growth over the summer to the people who guided him along the way, including his UNDP manager, Ilaria Mariotti, and Pitt faculty members M\u00fcge Finkel and Melanie Hughes.<\/p>\n

The path to Istanbul started well before this summer. Hickey secured the internship through his work with the Gender Equality in Public Administration (GEPA) working group at SPIA’s Ford Institute for Human Security<\/a>, where he researched women’s participation in government alongside faculty and fellow students. Earlier this year, the group presented its findings<\/a> at the UN Commission on the Status of Women in New York, giving him a preview of the kind of policy-facing work he would soon take on in T\u00fcrkiye. His internship was also supported by a grant from the Yale MacMillan Center.<\/p>\n

He also credits his path, in part, to the support the Pitt community gave him to grow and pursue ideas that didn’t always fit a conventional mold.<\/p>\n

“Throughout my time at Pitt, I always knew that my school and community would support me through uncertain times and support my research and projects,” he said. “The ability to tailor my studies and get mentorship from professors and staff was essential to my success throughout my academic career. On more than one occasion, professors indulged my off-topic projects, from Kyrgyz poetry to public history and language projects. These projects would develop into some of my proudest achievements, including my undergraduate Honors Thesis on Kyrgyz oral poetry.”<\/p>\n

\"MatthewIn addition to the coursework required of his master’s degree, he built a language portfolio in German, Russian, Turkish, and Kyrgyz, developed both at Pitt and abroad, and earnec certificates in Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies<\/a> and Global Sustainable Development<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For Hickey, the time in Istanbul was directly linked to his academic and professional goals. But some of the most memorable parts of the experience extended well beyond the office walls.<\/p>\n

\u201cOutside of work, I made the most of my time in Istanbul,” he said. “I often spent evenings writing at cafes along the Bosphorus, explored the city’s islands and historic landmarks, and traveled to nearby towns and cities on weekends. I also enjoyed meeting with university student clubs and attending a live performance in the 5th-century Theodosius Cistern, making my experience professionally rewarding and personally meaningful.”<\/p>\n

Looking back, Hickey sees his six years at Pitt, and the summer that followed in Istanbul, as proof of what’s possible when a university invests in a student’s curiosity\u2013\u00a0 and lets that curiosity lead somewhere real.<\/p>\n

Learn more about our Master in International Development<\/a>, with concentrations including energy and environment, human security, social policy, and more. \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Six years ago, Matthew Hickey (MID ’26) walked onto Pitt’s campus as an undergraduate with a curiosity for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":253078,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[73,75,74],"class_list":["post-253077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=253077"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253077\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/253078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}