Let's get started. 

Thank you, Jenny. Good evening, and welcome to our panel, International Affairs and Development. I will be presenting on securing peace through advocacy, education, and community building. My name is Romila Hussaini. I am class of 2019, and I'm doing a double major in Middle Eastern Studies as well as Political Science. I'm mainly interested in US foreign policy, focused on the Middle East, given my majors. 

My internship search didn't really go as planned. So I started out in the Fall last year, knowing where I wanted to intern, and that was the Afghan Embassy. I had done the application, I sent it in, but unfortunately, getting a response back for the internship was very difficult. I spent a couple of months trying to reach out about my application, got no response. So I went through and started speaking to professors, my peers, and mentors about internship opportunities. But Google ended up being my best friend in the intern-- internship search. 

I ended up working with the National Iranian American Council. They're a non-profit organization based in Washington, DC. But they do have offices in Seattle as well as California. Their sister organization is NIAC Action, which is separate from NIAC. That's their lobbying group. 

NIAC's mission is advocacy, education, and community building. Their efforts lie in advancing the interests of Iranian Americans in the United States. NIAC's president and one of the founders is Dr. Trita Parsi. I had the pleasure of working with him. And within such a small organization, I was able to actually interact with the president of the organization. Whereas, with bigger organizations, you're not really able to speak to and get advice from the president of the organization. And so I really enjoyed that experience. 

Some more things about NIAC. NIAC helped with the historic deal between the United States and Iran. And they're currently working to sustain the JCPOA. They lead the largest coalition of advocacy in DC for Iranian Americans. They host briefings on Capitol Hill for senators, congressmen, as well as their staff. They monitor legislation that affects Iranian Americans. 

A brief history of what happened between the US and Iran. It started out with Operation Ajax with the overthrow of democratically-elected prime minister in Iran. And then the 1979 Iranian Revolution happened. And through that, the hostage crisis that the United States is still scarred from today occurred, where 52 Americans were held hostage for 444 days. And today, the JCPOA is the only connection between the United States and Iran. And President Donald Trump has described that agreement as an embarrassment to the US. 

The two main things that the National Iranian American Council is focusing on today is working with other organizations to stop the Muslim ban as well as focusing on sustaining the JCPOA. This is a photo of our president speaking on the JCPOA as well as the Muslim ban. This photo right here, during the summer, we were celebrating the two-year anniversary of the JCPOA in front of the White House. This photo, we published it on the cover of The New York Times through a protest we did on the Muslim ban in front of the Supreme Court. And then we also held a candlelight vigil about the ISIS attack that occurred in Tehran over the summer. 

My role as an intern-- I was a development and policy intern. And through development, I did a lot of research on future prospective donors for the organization. And through policy, I attended a lot of briefings to other organizations, such as the Middle East Institute, [INAUDIBLE] Council, and Islamic Relief USA. 

Some of the cool people I met-- Representative John Myers. That's a photo of us. I was chosen among the interns to go with the NIAC employees to brief him on the Muslim ban. Representative Maxine Waters, Keith Ellison, as well as a lot of experts and scholars of the Middle East Institute. Three things I learned in development was learning how to draft grant proposals, maintaining good donor relationships, as well as event planning, which is super-important. 

In terms of policy, I learned a lot about the history of US and Iran relations. I learned how to draft policy memos, and action alerts, as well as op-eds. Aside from my internship, I spent my summer taking advantage of DC and all it had to offer. I attended an event held at Capitol Hill and saw the Library of Congress. I also celebrated the 4th of July on the lawn at the Washington Memorial, which I thought was really cool, and got a tour of Capitol Hill. Thank you for coming to our panel, and I hope you enjoy the rest of our [INAUDIBLE]. 

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