Welcome to the Archer Center!
Where Texas Meets the World Live, Learn, and Intern in our Nation’s Capital
As the Washington, D.C., campus of The University of Texas System, the Archer Fellowship Program provides talented undergraduate, graduate, and medical students with the opportunity to live, learn, and intern in the nation's capital.
In Memory of our Founder
The Archer Center is deeply saddened by the passing of Chairman Bill Archer, a distinguished public servant and the visionary founder of the Archer Center. Read more
Developing the Next Generation of Leaders
Our Mission: We educate the next generation of leaders for local, state, federal, and international service by offering varied experiential learning programs for undergraduate, graduate, and medical students from The University of Texas System.
Our Vision: To develop public- and private-sector leaders who understand the federal policymaking process, can solve relevant policy problems, contribute to improved civic engagement and civil society, and elevate the public discourse about policy and politics.
Pursue a Full-time Internship in our Nation’s Capital We’ll provide one-on-one support
Gain professional experience in an internship of your choosing. Previous Archer Fellows have interned with a wide range of organizations, including the Supreme Court, the U.S. Department of State, offices within the White House and on Capitol Hill, think tanks, and various nonprofit organizations.
Archer Alumni
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I most value the long term relationships I was able to make through the program both with mentors and colleagues. I still keep in touch with my Archer Fellow colleagues. We give each other career advice and feedback on other related projects.
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I truly consider the Archer Fellowship an important pillar of my professional development and a true cornerstone for my passion for public service.
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The Archer Fellowship was a formidable opportunity because it helped me realize that I did not have to choose between being a scientist and a policy advocate—my community needed me to be both. The Fellowship gave me clarity on what my next steps after college should be, and it also reinforced a lifelong commitment to service of vulnerable populations.
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The [Archer Fellowship] experience helped open my mind to different perspectives. I talked to political staffers in Congress from both sides of the aisle, went to museums and exhibits that made me think more critically about our nation's history, and was pushed out of my comfort zone nearly every single day. It made for an unforgettable experience.
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My unique career path embodies the values that were seeded in my Archer Fellowship semester: passion, motivation, and commitment to the service of others.
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My internship experience gave me a unique skill set I couldn't really develop in the clinical laboratory. Writing op-ed pieces, white papers and managing a large symposium were things I had never been exposed to in my line of work. I've since leveraged these skills in my current position to help recruit and retain young individuals in biomedical research.
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The Graduate Program in Public Policy has many merits, but the element I most enjoyed was interacting with my peers from the program during class, field trips and meetings with government professionals. Our group was eclectic, with students from a broad range of academic disciplines, hailing from nearly all UT System institutions. The Archer Center threw us all together, forging connections that would have been otherwise impossible.
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Medicine is a career of service and continuous growth, and I feel the Graduate Archer Fellowship Program allowed me to prioritize this aspect of my future career while expanding my perspective on our country, our government, and my ability to contribute to both.
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Being an Archer Fellow gave me a broad network of people from multiple career paths and industries whom I could ask for advice and perspective.
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I value the opportunity I was given to work in a real policy setting where I actively applied my skills to issues I deeply cared about. It was one thing to talk about issues in a classroom, but another to practice making policy.
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Being an Archer Fellow alum gives me a way to be connected to Washington, D.C., and provides me with a means of giving back via donating or reading scholarship essays to pay it forward.
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The connections and friendships I made in Washington, D.C., will last a lifetime. The Graduate Archer Fellowship provided me with so much information about national politics that I would have never had the opportunity to learn on my own.