Honouring the driving forces of Flinders' Washington Internship Program

The Ali Lehman Washington Memorial Prize acknowledges two leading lights of the Washington Internship Program at Flinders University.

Since 2000, Flinders University has sent over 133 students to intern in the United States Congress in Washington DC. This unparalleled opportunity enables the students to work full-time, for two to five months, in the office of a member of the United States Senate or the US House of Representatives.

The Flinders students in the Washington Internship Program (WIP) have created a stellar reputation in the US Congress, with longstanding members of Congress now requesting Flinders students as interns in their office. Each year the Flinders contingent remains the largest non-US university presence in the program.

A driving force behind this international life-changing and career-advancing program for Flinders students was Ali Lehman, who sadly died in 2021. 

In 2022 Emeritus Professor Don DeBats created the Ali Lehman Washington Memorial Prize in honour of Ali's dedication to the success of the Washington Internship Program.

Professor DeBats was the Professor and Head of American Studies at Flinders University, and founder of the Jeff Bleich Centre for the US Alliance in Digital Technology, Security, and Governance.

At the time of establishing the prize, Professor DeBats said: “Ali understood the power of the WIP to transform the lives of Flinders students and she engaged with it wholeheartedly for nearly a decade. She worked with students aiming to go to Washington to help them realise their dream.”

Ali Lehman