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Frederick S. Pardee
Institute for International Futures
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Student Experience at Pardee

At the Pardee Institute, students contribute to research, data, tools, analysis, and communications that support work on long-term global change.
Students help collect and code data, build and vet datasets, support scenario analysis, contribute to reports and publications, write for public audiences, assist with events, and communicate complex research across digital channels. Their work strengthens Pardee’s research infrastructure while helping them build practical skills for careers in research, policy, analytics, communications, intelligence, consulting, development, and related fields.

Use this page to learn how students contribute to Pardee’s work, what skills they build, and how their experience shapes their academic and professional paths.

Learning by contributing

Student work at Pardee is applied from the start. Research aides, fellows, and student team members contribute to projects that connect data, modeling, and analysis with real global questions.

Some students work with Diplometrics datasets, including the Country and Organization Leader Travel project, diplomatic representation data, international organization membership, multilateral treaties, and other efforts to measure relationships in the international system. Others support International Futures (IFs), Pardee’s open-source, integrated forecasting platform, by helping with data, scenario analysis, model interpretation, and partner-facing research. Students on the Marketing and Communications team help translate Pardee’s research for broader audiences through website updates, newsletters, articles, photography, events, and digital communications.

Across these roles, students learn how evidence is built: how qualitative information becomes structured data, how assumptions shape analysis, how scenario-based tools can support long-term thinking, and how research findings can be communicated clearly and responsibly.

Skills students build

Students describe their Pardee experience as a place to build both technical and professional skills. Depending on their role, students may gain experience in:

  • Data collection, coding, cleaning, and vetting
  • Open-source intelligence collection and source evaluation
  • Excel, Python, SQL, R, and other data tools
  • Literature reviews and policy-relevant research
  • Scenario analysis and IFs-based forecasting
  • Analytical writing, technical writing, and public-facing communications
  • Website management, newsletters, article writing, photography, and digital content
  • Project management, deadlines, feedback, and team collaboration
  • Leadership, mentoring, and quality assurance

These skills are transferable across many career paths. Students have connected their Pardee experience to interests in international development, policy analysis, data analytics, intelligence, consulting, communications, research, humanitarian work, corporate social responsibility, and graduate study.

Student snapshots

Research, data, and modeling experience
Many student roles focus on building and maintaining data resources used in Pardee’s research. Students working on Diplometrics and related projects gather information from public sources, code international interactions, review data quality, and learn how datasets are built over time.

This work helps students understand how international relationships can be studied systematically. It also gives them practice with careful documentation, source evaluation, attention to detail, and collaborative quality control.

Other students support IFs-based work, including scenario development, data comparison, forecast interpretation, and applied analysis. Through this work, students learn how assumptions, model structure, and system relationships shape scenario results. They also gain experience connecting technical analysis to questions about development, climate, governance, energy, conflict, and long-term planning.
Communications and public engagement
Pardee’s student experience also includes communications work. Students on the Marketing and Communications team help make Pardee’s research accessible to broader audiences, including policymakers, researchers, students, partners, and the public.

Their work may include writing articles, editing newsletters, managing web content, supporting events, creating social media content, building visual assets, and translating technical research into clear public language. This work requires students to think carefully about audience, accuracy, tone, and the limits of what research can claim.

For students interested in communications, public affairs, journalism, international relations, or research translation, these roles offer a chance to practice writing about complex global issues with clarity and care.

Student voices

“Working at Pardee has given me the opportunity to work in a research-driven environment that has allowed me to strengthen my analytical and attention-to-detail skills.”
--Awa Sanneh, Int'l Studies graduate 2026, COLT RA
“I have been able to work on real-world datasets, contribute to research projects, and deepen my understanding of the data analysis process.”
--Maya Rai, Research Methods and Statistics, Core Diplo RA
“Learning how qualitative information can be codified into a dataset is remarkably important.”
--Hamzah Clark, Int'l Business graduate 2026, COLT RA
“Creating marketing materials for an institute with such a complex platform pushed me to think carefully about everything we were writing and promoting.”
--Brittany Porte, Int'l Comms grad 2026, MarCom Team Lead
"[This] has given me great connections and a better understanding of what modeling is and how it can be used in international development situations."
--Julia Frangul, Int'l Dev grad 2026, Pardee Fellow

Preparing for many possible careers

Pardee student roles do not point to only one career path. Students use their experience to prepare for work in research, policy, analytics, data science, international affairs, communications, intelligence, consulting, development, nonprofit work, and other fields.

For some students, Pardee confirms an existing interest. For others, it opens a new path. Students have described discovering interests in integrated assessment modeling, data analytics, foreign policy research, due diligence, humanitarian analysis, public-sector consulting, communications, and long-term development research.

What connects these paths is the ability to work carefully with evidence, communicate clearly, and understand how decisions and assumptions can shape outcomes across systems.

Help support a global community working toward a more knowable future

Pardee’s open tools, research, and training resources support students, researchers, policymakers, and practitioners around the world. Your gift helps keep that work accessible and strengthens the public research infrastructure behind it.

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