Every semester, HIF offers the opportunity for undergraduate and graduate students to intern with the foundation gaining substantive work experience while enjoying the bustling life of the US Capitol. This spring HIF is hosting Csongor Bajnóczki of Wright State University.
Csongor Bajnóczki
Csongor Bajnóczki is a recent graduate from Wright State University, where he earned his B.A. in International Studies and French Language in 2016 and his M.A. in International and Comparative Politics in 2018. During his graduate studies, he primarily focused on media populism in the European Union.
Originally from Budapest, Hungary, Csongor moved to the Dayton, Ohio in 2012 upon being offered an athletic scholarship by Wright State University’s NCAA Division I Swimming and Diving Team. Besides being a full-time student-athlete, he also worked as a tutor and professor assistant on campus during his undergraduate studies and as a graduate assistant during his graduate years while in school, whereas he was interning in either Budapest or Brussels, Belgium during his summer breaks at places such as JEUNE, FIVOSZ, and UCB.
“As my college years were comingto an end, I was torn between going back to Budapest and staying in the US. Thus, I felt relieved when I found out that I could intern for HIF, because I get to contribute to Hungarian matters while remaining in the US. After having obtained summer internships with NGOs and multinational corporations, I am thrilled to be a part of this prestigious non-profit, where I can work multiple projects and learn how the organization works in a very hands-on way.”
In the future, Csongor plans on moving back to Europe. He hopes to strengthen his soft skills, knowledge, and grasp of US-Hungarian relations while interning at HIF, so that he can return with a unique background to start his work on the field of either international affairs and diplomacy or media consultancy.
“I would like to move home eventually, or at least to Europe, and work with non-profits or NGOs standing up for media pluralism. Freshly coming out of college, I cannot think of a more appropriate place to begin my professional career than HIF, where I can learn and work on affairs that I could not have imagined before. Washington D.C. is also the perfect location to learn the gists of this field that I would not be able to do elsewhere.”