History

On February 7, 1984, an internship organization (later to become part of EUSA) welcomed its first cohort of American undergraduate students to London. The students were participating in a Northeastern University political science internship program set up for that institution by London Placements, an organization founded by Tony Johnson, now one of the Executive Directors of EUSA.

By 1986, London Placements began its relationship with Boston University. A short time later Boston University began offering internships to its Madrid program participants through COSIF, an organization run by Dr. Aden Hayes, EUSA’s other Executive Director.

The programs and internship placements in both London and Madrid grew to offer opportunities across all industry sectors including business, finance, communications, law, healthcare services, arts and others.

In the 2000s Boston University, London Placements and COSIF set up EUSA in its current form. The same internship placement expertise that Boston University had received became available, along with other program support services, to colleges and universities throughout the United States.  Adding to the London and Madrid operations, EUSA soon started to broaden its European bases to include Dublin, Paris and Geneva.

In 2006, EUSA expanded its internship placement teams onto the North American continent, first in Boston, then in New York City and San Francisco.

EUSA currently works with over 55 universities worldwide. In 2009, EUSA placed 2,000 students in internships around the world.

Philosophy

Internships

EUSA understands that no two students are exactly alike and no two internships are exactly alike. EUSA personalizes the internship placement experience for each student through an individual placement meeting and assessment to ensure both student interest and academic relevance of the placement. EUSA also places students based on in-depth knowledge of the project needs, work cycles and work environment of our internship sponsors.

EUSA guides students throughout the internship experience, offering advice and strategies to help students navigate their professional practice and cultural immersion.

The Partnership Model

We work tirelessly to be a valuable and trusted service, which can both quickly and dramatically expand the cultural and professional learning options our educational partners can offer to their students. We value our educational partners and implement their programs - as they would themselves -- to the highest standards.

EUSA requires certain common standards across all its programs in order to ensure quality and compliance with local laws. All other elements of a program are customized and developed with the active participation of our university partners. As programs are run on behalf of individual partner universities, and the program is run under their aegis, they remain involved throughout the course of a program’s development and delivery.