The Division of International Studies has hired Maj Fischer to serve as the first managing director of the International Internship Program (IIP) at UW–Madison. IIP is a campus-wide, centralized international internship office funded by the Madison Initiative for Undergraduates (MIU) and was proposed jointly by the Division and the Office of Corporate Relations.
The International Internship Program is a collaboration between the Division of International Studies and the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences. IIP will provide the structure to developing international internship opportunities, place students in those internships, and prepare them for the experience. It will also serve as a resource for employers looking to hire students with global skills.
Formerly the associate director of UW–Madison’s International Academics Programs (IAP) from 1996 to 2003, Maj has continued her work in international education and cross cultural exchange overseas for the past 6 ½ years.
From 2003-2005, Maj served as associate director for the Peace Corps in Fiji, re-opening the program after its five-year hiatus.
After Fiji, she moved half way (literally!) around the world to Copenhagen, Denmark, to work for The Danish Institute for Study Abroad (DIS). There she served first as a program director and most recently as the director of academics for Scandinavia’s largest organization hosting students from the U.S. and around the world. Among other duties, Maj spearheaded international service-learning efforts at DIS and hopes to build upon that experience in her new position as managing director of the International Internship Program to increase internships and service-learning opportunities overseas for Madison undergraduates.
“I feel so fortunate to be back at UW–Madison, one of the country’s top universities for international education and learning abroad,” Fischer says. “The opportunity to help develop a program from the ground up is a once-in-a-lifetime chance. I look forward to meeting and working with colleagues across campus on this forward-looking endeavor.”
While she has lived around the world, Maj is a proud native of Wisconsin with an undergraduate degree (AB) from the University of Chicago and a Masters in Public Policy (MPP) focusing on International Development and Education Policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. She was also a Fulbright participant in Korea, a Peace Corps Volunteer in Poland, a summer intern in Brussels, and spent a year in both Finland and Sweden as an exchange student.
Maj Fischer may be reached at (608) 261-1359 or mhfischer@international.wisc.edu.