Katie Bentivoglio CC ’13 has received a prestigious Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Junior Fellowship. The highly-competitive fellowship, at the think tank’s office in Washington D.C., is offered to between 10 and 12 seniors and recent graduates each year from nearly 400 participating colleges, each of which may only nominate two candidates per year.

Katie Bentivoglio CC ’13

Carnegie Junior Fellows work as research assistants for the endowment’s senior associates, conducting research for books, journal articles and policy papers, participating in meetings with high-level officials, contributing to congressional testimony, and organizing briefings attended by scholars, journalists and government officials.

Bentivoglio, who was a political science and Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies major, is currently working as a Presidential Intern at the American University in Cairo. While at the College, she won three Critical Language Scholarships and a Foreign Language and Area Studies award for studying Arabic. Bentivoglio was a resident advisor, president of the Columbia Parliamentary Debate Society and a writer for the Columbia Daily Spectator. She also served as an intern at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, Egypt, and as assistant to the editor of the Journal of Arabic Literature. She won a King’s Crown Leadership Excellence Award in the “Building Bridges” category, earned Phi Beta Kappa and graduated Magna Cum Laude. She transferred to the College from the University of California at Berkeley. 

Since graduation, Bentivoglio has been continuing to seek opportunities that allow her to pursue her interest in Middle Eastern and North African politics and utilize her Arabic skills.

Bentivoglio in Egypt

"For these reasons,  I could not be more enthusiastic about working as a Carnegie Junior Fellow," she said. "Living in Cairo this  past year, I have witnessed Egypt's continued political transition firsthand and have also spent time  studying Arabic in Tunisia and Morocco. Shaped by these experiences, I look forward to moving from an observer of Arab politics to a participant in policy discussions and creation."

Carnegie, the oldest international affairs think tank in the United States, seeks to advance the cause of peace through analysis and development of fresh policy ideas and direct engagement and collaboration with decision makers in government, business, and civil society. The endowment has research centers in Beijing, Beirut, Brussels, Moscow, and Washington as well as a program in Almaty. Bentivoglio will be working in the Endowment’s Middle East program. 

Yusuf Ahmad CC ’12, who was an anthropology major at the College, is currently a junior fellow in the Democracy and Rule of Law Program at the Carnegie Endowment. 

“We’re thrilled that Katie has been awarded a Carnegie Junior Fellowship,” said Paul Bohlmann, Assistant Dean of Fellowship Programs. “It’s a great opportunity for her, as well as a great achievement. Katie has been able to build her knowledge of Arabic and the Middle East with fellowship support since her first year at Columbia, and now she’ll bring that expertise to work in an international relations think tank. It’s also a special honor for Columbia, since Katie is our second Carnegie fellow in a row. Yusuf Ahmad CC ’12, who’s at the Endowment now, is another engaging student of the Middle East.”