As we near SIG’s 50th anniversary in the summer of 2013, we invite alumni to re-engage with SIG and with each other! The upcoming 50th anniversary represents decades of life-changing experiences and of service by Stanford alumni. We encourage you to connect with SIG through our Facebook page, twitter, or through this page, by submitting your own SIG story. Please contact Lina Hidalgo  with any questions.

On this page, you will find information about SIG’s alumni today, SIG’s new Stipends program, and the 50th Anniversary Alumni Advisory Board. You can read about SIG in the Stanford Daily here!

Read about the 50th Anniversary celebration events here

SIG’s legacy through its alumni

SIG alumni over the years have become leaders of our nation and of the world. Soon, SIG will have played an enriching and substantive role in Stanford students’ life for a full half-century. Please share your story with us!

From Stanford in Government’s Co-Founder, a Testimonial

By Armin Rosencranz, Ph.D. ’70, M.A. ’63, J.D. ’62

I was ASSU president in 1963. My friend Jamie Hunter suggested that Stanford needed a DC-based summer internship program — unusual at that time. With an air ticket supplied by the ASSU legislature, I traveled to Washington DC and cruised the halls of Congress to obtain 14 summer internships. Some were offered by Members of Congress with Stanford connections.  At least half were unpaid. The first interns were so excited by their experience of working on Capitol Hill that they urged that “Stanford in Washington” be perpetuated.  It was, with the help of the Stanford Alumni Association. The organization grew by leaps and bounds over the years. SIW became SIG, in recognition of the many summer experiences it offers in the US and around the world.  I’m slightly embarrassed to be called a founder of SIG, since the organization that I helped set up 50 years ago is like an acorn compared to the tall oak that SIG has grown into.  Read more testimonials here…

Increasing Exposure to Public Service: Announcing the All-New SIG Stipend Program

SIG has received permission from the Stanford Office of Development to raise funds for up to 40 stipends in addition to the 39 fellowship offerings so generously endowed by alumni and friends over the last 50 years.  The Stipends financially support summer internships for students from nontraditional majors to explore the intersection between their major and public policy.  As a pilot, existing SIG donors have agreed to support 11 Stipends this summer to fund students’ self arranged internships in organizations spanning health, labor, environmental policy, and others. Some of the fellows share their reflections below.

Tenzin Sonam Atruktsang ‘14

Tenzin is an undeclared student in the pre-medical track. He worked Central Tibetan Administration’s Department of Health, on youth education and Hepatitis prevention. “After seeing the role of the government on health, I became interested in the public health aspect of being a doctor, and will be taking classes on healthcare policy and public policy. Without a Stipend, I would have stayed at home and worked.”

Stefan Norgaard ‘15

Stefan was undeclared before his internship this summer, and was considering majoring in urban studies or history. Stefan travelled throughout Ghana, working with the KaeMe Foundation, a nonprofit, and Ghana’s Department of Social Welfare. He helped create a comprehensive and transparent data-collecting system that the Department of Social Welfare can use to evaluate all orphanages in Ghana. “Through my internship, my eyes were opened to the many complexities of the orphanage system in Ghana and, more broadly, to the complexities of policy and politics in the developing world.  This summer, I learned that policy is how to best make change, and, because of that, I will declare public policy as a major.  Without a Stipend, I would have worked at home.  I had already turned down two senate internships in Washington, D.C. because of the cost.”  

Please read more about our Stipends Program here.

Advisory Board Update