In Washington, participants get first-hand experience with U.S. government and politics and an immersion in American culture by living with an area host family.
The program aims to send students home with enhanced professional and interpersonal skills and a new confidence in their own leadership abilities which they are expected to demonstrate through service to their own communities.
Placements have included The White House, Congressional offices, The Northern Ireland Bureau, The World Bank, Habitat for Humanity, AFL-CIO, CNN and CBS, Library of Congress, Environmental Protection Agency, National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, The Justice Project, Imagination Stage and Solas Nua, among many others.
Students also help launch and run the following year's program by assisting with marketing, recruiting, selecting and mentoring the succeeding WIP class.
These include: a research officer to the NI First Minister in Westminster; television and radio news journalists; reporters for major newspapers in Belfast and London; barristers and solicitors; university professors and primary school teachers; consultants with Accenture and PriceWaterhouseCoopers; Dublin PR firm managers; assistant to Members of the NI Assembly and the Irish Parliament; political party operatives in Northern Ireland and the Republic; and Executive Officer for the Home Office in London.
The participants, who stay with American Host Families, range in age from 10–14 years old and come from neighborhoods in which the Protestant-Catholic conflict has taken an especially heavy toll.