CPD selects two Annenberg students as summer associates

Two students at the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism have been selected to be the 2018 Summer Associates through the USC Center for Public Diplomacy. Established last year, the U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy and the center’s non-resident fellowship program allows public diplomacy students to obtain internships and to work with the ACPD to collect data and expand networks.

According to the CPD website, the associates work closely with ACPD on research projects, data analysis and creating different materials for PD practitioners.

Daniel Toomey, a junior majoring in journalism, will intern at the Mayor’s Office of International Affairs in Los Angeles as part of the Olympic Development Committee.

As a summer associate, Toomey is currently assisting organizers with preparations for the 2028 Summer Olympics, which will be hosted in Los Angeles. He will attend planning meetings, where officials will be making crucial and structural decisions on how the city will prepare for the event.

“When you’re hosting the Olympics, half the game is making sure you can even manage it,” Toomey said. “It’s a far ways away, but now is when you have to start planning for those types of things.”

Prior to interning with the Olympic Development Committee this year, Toomey has worked behind the scenes in other sporting events as well. According to Toomey, he worked with NBC’s features department as a production intern for the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

“Daniel’s experience with NBC at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics and his leadership within USC’s Annenberg Media Center are an important fit as we in the Mayor’s Office of International Affairs explore how best to action and communicate our ideas for the city over the next ten years in the lead-up to welcoming the world to Los Angeles for the Olympic and Paralympic Games,” Mayor Garcetti’s Director of Olympic and Paralympic Development Erin Bromaghim said in the released CPD article.

Robert Dunbar, a USC public diplomacy graduate student, will work with the U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy in Washington, D.C.

“I’m really looking forward to getting experience with the federal government,” Dunbar said. “I haven’t interned for the government before, so that should be exciting. I’ll be working on the annual comprehensive report on public diplomacy spending that the state department does. I’ll be learning a lot about public diplomacy in the field of countering bio extremism.”

Dunbar previously attended Saint Mary’s College of California, where he received a bachelor’s degree in political science. He is particularly interested in international affairs. Dunbar also spent a semester studying abroad in Italy and has fostered a particular regional interest in Spain, Italy and southwestern Europe.

“Hopefully I’ll be able to bridge the gap between the academic series that we’re learning in my program,” Dunbar said, “I hope to apply those theories to the actual field and practice related to national security policy.”