Senior International Relations major Gina Bolli has had many exciting experiences at York College. While preparing for her upcoming graduation in May 2025, she reflects on how she got to where she is now and what she hopes the future holds for her.
When Gina Bolli ’25 walked into her meeting with Dr. Beverly Evans, Assistant Dean for Career Development/Student Development & Campus Life, she planned to discuss her resume and explore her future career plans. Although one of her potential career goals was to work for the federal government, Gina wanted to see what other opportunities she could pursue with her International Relations degree after her May 2025 graduation.
To Gina’s surprise, Dr. Evans recommended that she apply for the James C. Gaither Junior Fellows Program with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where they offer approximately 15 one-year fellowships to graduating seniors and individuals who graduated in the past academic year.
Despite the large pool of applicants she would be up against and the high competitiveness of the program, Gina was excited about the possibility of working as a research assistant and using everything she had learned over the past four years for professional work. Although her chances of being selected were slim, Gina knew firsthand what taking a chance to advocate for herself could lead to.
A Love of Learning Leads the Way
Gina grew up with a love of learning about other countries, world history, and foreign cultures. She is proud of her heritage as half Peruvian and constantly learns about other cultures. She became heavily involved in her high school’s culture club, which led to her becoming good friends with the international students who went to school with her.
At the same time, Gina found herself exploring law and politics. With so many different interests, she wasn’t quite sure what to study in college. During a conversation with her father, he suggested combining everything and obtaining a degree in international relations. This decision would eventually lead her to spend the next four years of her life at York College of Pennsylvania.
Now, Gina is involved with organizations such as the Eisenheart Community Scholars Program and is Chair of the Social Subcommittee of the College’s Newman Club. She expressed how much she loved her Government Politics of Latin America class and her International Organizations class, the latter of which had the students do a Model United Nations and travel to a conference each year to hold it.
Gina even spent her 2023 Fall Semester studying abroad in Salamanca, Spain, taking culture classes and doing volunteer work. Every new experience added to her confidence and allowed her to begin envisioning what her future career path may look like.
Going for the Gaither Junior Fellows Program
If she is selected for the James C. Gaither Junior Fellows Program, Gina will have the opportunity to work under one of the scholars-in-residence on research regarding other countries.
The process is lengthy and exclusive, with potential candidates having to be nominated to apply. Gina’s professors were the ones to advocate for and nominate her. They also helped her throughout the application process, even assisting her in writing her program essay. The topic was to pick two countries and write a comparative analysis of third democracies, how healthy they were, and what that means for the world.
Gina is still waiting to hear if she will be selected to advance to the next stage of the application process and be interviewed. She will most likely have an answer by the end of March 2025.
Gina applied because the fellowship is a paid job that she would be working for the next 10-12 months starting in September 2025. It wouldn’t be permanent, but opportunities for the position to become a full-time appointment with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace are possible. Plus, it can be included on a resume, allowing Gina to use her degree effectively after graduation.
“Ideally, I want to use my degree in some way or another,” Gina said, “and I would love to use my degree in a way that matters…like a research gig where I’m conducting research on other countries and how their democracy is doing, and that research can be used for something good…”
Taking a Step into the State Department
One of Gina’s career goals is to eventually work in the federal government, an interest she discovered her junior year after completing an internship with the U.S. Department of State in the 2024 Spring Semester.
Gina was placed in the Office of Central American Affairs within the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs. In the beginning, her duties involved assisting with matters related to the Panama desk. She also helped with smaller tasks, including doing some work for Honduras’ and El Salvador's desks.
All that changed, however, when the Panama desk officer left for another agency. Since the department needed a senior-level foreign service officer to handle the country, the desk officer for Nicaragua took over the empty position, and Gina’s supervisor asked her to become the new Nicaragua desk officer. Desk officer positions are typically General Schedule or GS-13 level positions, while interns are only GS-4, so this was a major change and new challenge for her.
“Before I officially became the desk officer of Nicaragua,” Gina said, “I had two weeks to prepare. So, I just did a massive deep dive into the country so I could learn as much as I could about it.”
Many of Gina’s responsibilities involved “clearing papers,” such as congressional correspondences. Essentially, someone from Congress would bring attention to a recent issue within a foreign country, send a message to the State Department asking what sort of action will be taken to resolve it, and then receive a response.
Gina’s role was to draft the responses and get them cleared by several offices around the department, ensuring the accuracy and consistency of the products being released by the State Department.
Gina also acted as the point of contact for people at the Embassy in Managua, the capital of Nicaragua. Whenever they had to contact D.C. about matters such as sanctions or an American citizen there, they reached out to Gina. She even acted as the contact person for any meetings with members of the Civil Society, meaning Gina met with many Nicaraguan human rights activists, lawyers, and subject matter experts.
“I also met with the group of human rights experts on Nicaragua,” Gina said. “They’re from the UN, and they were researchers. Every year, they come out with this damning report basically shining the spotlight on the dictatorship there.”
Essentially, Gina’s tasks consisted of high-profile meetings, drafting and clearing papers, going to the International Religious Freedom Summit, representing the State Department, and other smaller tasks. If the higher-ups had a meeting with a diplomatic official and needed talking points for a Nicaragua-related topic, Gina would write them up for them. Many higher-ups are not experts on the niche topics they need to speak on, so they must contact people who know more about them.
Overall, Gina loved her internship experience. Not only did her supervisors praise her writing style and research capabilities, but she left the internship with a great letter of recommendation confirming that she was doing good work.
She recommends it to anyone interested in international relations or political science, especially since interns are paid as federal employees and will be paid for housing if they need to relocate. Gina also felt that her confidence and ability to handle new, high-stress situations grew.
“I would probably say that I’m more capable of scary things than I thought I was…” Gina said. “That just kind of confirmed to me that, ‘Oh, I am actually capable of these things, and if I’m actually, you know, thrown in a new and scary situation, I won’t drown.’ That was good to know, and moving forward, if I’m ever thrown in a similar situation, whether it’s something school-related or if at a job…then I would feel more confident in tackling it because I’ve done it before.”
Advocating for Model UN
Along with the experiences Gina has pursued outside of school, many of her classes have also impacted her growth. One of the most notable is her International Organizations class because of her involvement in the National Model United Nations conference.
She participated in the class for the first time in her sophomore year, where she and her fellow classmates represented Thailand. They learned a lot about the politics and culture of Thailand, but Gina’s assignment focused on issues relating to climate change and refugees. They also had the chance to learn about other countries and their position on these topics.
The colleges and their students who participated in the Model UN formed committees and traveled in the spring to a location where they would all meet and conduct a UN simulation, each representing a different country. It was something Gina was incredibly passionate about that allowed her to combine her interests and interact with others in a semi-professional environment.
However, things were different for Gina’s senior year. While talking with Dr. Corey Brooks, Chair of the History and Political Science Departments and Full Professor of History, she learned there was uncertainty about whether or not the class would be held due to funding. At the very least, getting interested students the accommodations they would need when traveling and staying where the Model UN was being held would be difficult.
“In other words, if things stayed like that, the class wouldn’t run,” Gina said. “People wouldn’t even be able to sign up for it because [they] couldn’t afford that this year. So, I took matters into my own hands.”
Thanks to a connection to a York College donor who had given scholarships to her and other students interested in studying abroad, Gina set up a meeting for December 2024 to discuss potential funding for the class. Dr. Brooks even connected her with Glenn Miller, Vice President of Advancement. With Miller’s assistance, she created a well-thought-out proposal with several options for how the donor could provide monetary support.
The donor was incredibly impressed with Gina’s proposal at the meeting, and as a result, he agreed to give 50% of the high-end plan right then and there. For the remaining amount, the donor wanted to see how much the students could raise on their own, and however much was still missing, he would fill the gap. Ultimately, Gina and the other students interested in participating in the class raised $1,500 in addition to the donor’s contributions.
Thanks to her efforts, the International Organizations class is now being held for the Spring 2025 Semester. The twelve students, including Gina, will attend the Model UN conference in New York City this year from April 13th to 17th, 2025, and will represent Australia.
This meant a lot to Gina, not just because her favorite class was being held again. Gina took the lead and made it happen, something she had been anxious about but was so happy to see its success and gain new skills.
“The reason why that’s significant for me is because I learned a lot about networking and why that’s important,” Gina said. “The fact that I had to create a proposal and all that - it’s all those important skills that I developed over the course of last semester for something that wasn’t even required. For me, that was a very meaningful experience.”
“You Won’t Know Unless You Try”
Looking back on all she had accomplished, Gina feels ready to take her next steps after college. She never imagined having so many life-changing opportunities during her four years at York College, but seeing where she is now, Gina is happy with her choices and for taking chances, even when seeing how daunting they initially appeared.
“The biggest thing I learned, especially in the last year, is you won’t know unless you try, or the answer is always ‘no’ if you don’t ask,” Gina said. “With the Model UN, if I never had the guts to ask about it, nothing would have happened. Or with the internship, I remember when I was applying for it, and I was thinking, ‘I’m not going to get this internship’ because it is a competitive internship. But I still applied for it, and I still feel the same way about the Carnegie Endowment. I would be surprised if I got an interview, but I won’t know unless I try.”
“So, to any students incoming, I would just tell them to try, ask the questions, and see how far you go because if you don’t, then you’re never going to see.”
