GLOBAL MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS
Jaroslav Plevko

A student who majored in computer engineering at Slovak University of Technology in Slovakia, Jaroslav Plevko first applied to the Washington Internship Program over a year before he actually participated. Jaroslav was deferred when he explained that personal reasons would interfere with the original start date he had requested, but WIP reactivated Jaro’s candidacy after these matters were resolved – as is always the case when interns need to postpone their participation in the Washington Internship Program until any date in the future that proves to be more convenient. Jaro was placed in a paid internship at Global Management Solutions, LLC, which involved both his training in information technology and global interests. Located on Wisconsin Avenue in downtown Washington, Global Management Solutions was quite flexible in the hours Jaro worked and the three major organizations to which he was assigned on a contractual basis. Therefore, Jaro was able to live nearly an hour away and commute from Severn, Maryland. Jaro’s J1 visa was for eighteen months, and he started his internship on May 16, 2005.

Before long, Jaro told WIP about his girlfriend – Manami Osugi from Kinki University in Osaka, Japan – who had also majored in computers and wished to participate in the Washington Internship Program. Manami was accepted by WIP and placed in the information technology department of the American Red Cross in Fairfax, Virginia where she started an eighteen-month internship in mid September of 2005.  Manami followed in the footsteps of WIP interns from Kenya in Africa; Seoul, South Korea; Ankara, Turkey (by way of Tampa, Florida); Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (by way of Flint, Michigan); and Moscow in Russia – not to mention Lowell, Massachusetts (by way of India), which illustrates some of the diverse locations from which the Washington Internship Program selected interns to work at the American Red Cross over the past few years. The story of global friendship between Jaro and Manami, two students in the same field who were dispersed geographically but brought together in the U.S. capital through the Washington Internship Program, is reiterated in similar international anecdotes over the years that WIP is pleased to share.

Fittingly, the Red Cross is famous for providing a safe blood supply and helping with emergency services during natural and man-made disasters. Manami is still working so her paper has not yet been submitted, but suffice it to say that her internship involved work with the database administrator, health and safety training, graphics and communication, creation of an on-line portal for authorized providers, customer relations, and e-commerce related to items from the Red Cross catalogue. Both Jaro and Manami profited from WIP’s second weekly class, intensive English for interns from countries where English is not the native language, which was taught by Andrew Kolb at International House on Monday evenings. This instruction assisted the couple in communicating with one another as well as with professional staff on the job. Jaroslav’s description of his compound internship appears below:

INTERNATIONAL REPUBLICAN INSTITUTE

“I worked at Global management Solutions, LLC, and my internship began in May of 2005 and ended at the conclusion of October 2006. In the fall, I will begin studying for my Masters degree in science at Strayer University in Washington, D.C. where I plan to specialize in information and business-network management. From November 2005 through January 2006, I was assigned to work as a network administrator for the International Republican Institute. There I monitored network traffic and AD management on a daily basis. I protected the computers against SPAM and other viruses through use of a Norton Antivirus Corporate edition. Each task had to be logged in TRACKIT, which is a software program for managing and supporting IT assets. IRI has branch offices around the world. I helped keep these programs up and running under Windows 2003 platform servers. The company uses a centralized exchange, which was accessible to traveling employers through VPN clients. We also backed up documents on Z-Box storage units. Our employees, who worked for a year abroad, attended a New Year retreat that my company sponsored. This unique opportunity gave us a chance to meet more than 140 people who were greeted by senator McCain during the event. For eleven days we worked on their laptops to solve any problems the workers may have developed overseas. Typical tasks involved cleaning Spyware / viruses, updating new software, and addressing hardware difficulties. During this period, we also held a number of virtual conferences using IP phone connections, which were helpful for support when we couldn’t reach staff members personally and our branches had no reasonable IT services in the countries where they were based.”

AFFINITY NETWORK SOLUTIONS,
WASHINGTON SUBURBAN SANITARY COMMISSION

“From February through April of 2006, I was assigned to Affinity Network Solutions, Inc. where I worked on a project for the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission (WSSC) that involved PC system replacement. I personally visited all the sites and replaced old systems with new ones. There were more than fourteen hundred personal computers throughout the Washington, D.C. / Maryland area. We installed image capabilities on all computers as was required by the department. On site I replaced units, created logon procedures for users, and connected PCs to the domain. I also insured that old data could migrate to new PCs. Such tasks involved using a product called a Ghost-image server from Symantec. Using old speeds of 100Mb/s, we needed to establish connections with local hubs and switches.”

INDYNE, INC.,
CENTER FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION (CDC)

“From April through October 2006, I was assigned to InDyne, Inc. as an SQL / Delphi programmer. The project to which I devoted most of my time was created by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). We developed a server-client application for Suicide / Homicide death reports. The main tools used were: Microsoft SQL server 2000 plus object-oriented language from Delphi and Borland. The applications used were Principe relational database structures. Each form had its own database, and every variable involved a value lookup. InDyne supports all state users through its own helpdesk, which entailed more work for us in terms of debugging and tuning applications.”

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