Student wins honor society internship

Phi Beta Kappa, the nation’s oldest academic honors society, has honored Durga Ghosh, a senior majoring in political economy, with a writing internship for the society’s online publication The Key Reporter. Ghosh is the first ever USC student to be accepted into the internship program.

When Ghosh was inducted into the USC chapter of Phi Beta Kappa last spring, she became interested  in involvement opportunities with programs the society has to offer.  After speaking with Dr. Robins Romans, associate provost and president of USC’s Epsilon Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, Ghosh was inspired to apply for the society’s prestigious writing internship.

The internship is offered to university students who are recommend by their institution’s Phi Beta Kappa chapter and also possess talent and demonstrate interest in research and writing.

Ghosh, a frequent contributor for Neon Tommy and previously the Daily Trojan, has had a background in journalistic writing—specifically sports—as well as travel writing. Ghosh became interested in travel writing while backpacking through Europe over the summer and began to compile a list of helpful tips while abroad.

“I would take notes on things I did to save money, and when I came back I explained it to my friends. ” Ghosh explains on where her interest on the topic first began. Telling her friends about the feasibility of traveling through Europe on a limited budget got them excited to do trips of their own.  The positive responses Ghosh received inspired her to write more on the topic for both The Key Reporter as well as for “The Traveling Stilettos”—an online travel and fashion blog.

In addition to being involved with USC’s chapter of the Phi Beta Kappa society, Ghosh volunteers for Troy Camp which serves youth who live around the USC campus year round, interns for the PAC-12 and works as a Spanish tutor, as well as a student advisor in the theater department.

“Durga is an exceptional student who has a strong commitment to interdisciplinary approaches to liberal arts studies,” Romans said. “This is evidenced by her major, which combines the study of politics and economics and her interest in theater.”

For the rest of the articles Ghosh intends to submit to The Key Reporter, she plans to focus on topics regarding health economics. As an political economy major ,Ghosh has spent a great deal of time researching the economics of the American healthcare system for her honors thesis, specifically analyzing the Affordable Care Act. However, she also plans to widen her lens to health economics in other parts of the world.

“I’ve taken a lot of global classes, so it branches out to not just what’s centric in the United States, but what’s relevant around the world,” she said.

Ghosh’s first article, which will be published on The Key Reporter’s website on Sept. 1st, will discuss the possible downsides of studying abroad.