Name: Naomi Egel
Home Institution:  University of California, Berkeley
Major: Peace and Conflict Studies
CNS Projects: International Organizations and Nonproliferation Program 

“The undergraduate internship at CNS combines substantive work with educational lectures from leading nonproliferation experts. Through interning with IONP, I gained a clear understanding of the various types of treaties and organizations that have been established to address nonproliferation and disarmament challenges and their successes and challenges. I updated a database used by students and experts and I helped create an entirely new database. CNS is very much a leader in the nonproliferation and disarmament field and is constantly initiating new outreach, education, and coalition-building activities. It’s a very exciting organization to be a part of. The staff members at CNS were also wonderful. They were friendly and welcoming and always made themselves available to answer questions or provide assistance.

I also really enjoyed CNS’ emphasis on education: the almost daily lectures were a great opportunity to learn about various topics related to WMD (weapons of mass destruction) from some of the leading experts in the field. The lectures covered everything from the technical requirements of verifying disarmament to the political processes behind the drafting of certain treaties and through them I gained a much more thorough understanding of these issues.”