Students from the LSE- Sciences Po Double Degree in European Studies have gone on to a wide range of careers since graduating from LSE. The profiles below aim to showcase this diversity.
Andrew Bishop, LSE-Sciences Po Double Degree in European Studies, 2007-2009
"I completed the double master's degree in European Studies between the London School of Economics and Sciences Po in 2007-2009. The aspect I most enjoyed in pursuing this curriculum was its flexible character. Being professionally interested in political risk, I was often offered the chance to study a range of topics above and beyond the European Union's immediate institutional horizon. For example, one of my favorite courses at LSE dealt with European security and the ambiguous relations between overlapping security architectures in the post-Cold War era. Another focused on elements of continuity and novelty in Soviet and post-Soviet foreign policies. All in all, I found the level of courses, professors, and students stimulating, and the two schools' atmospheres forward-looking and open. This was a fresh reminder of my undergraduate studies at the Johns Hopkins University, as US-like openness had always been particularly important to me. Throughout my academic studies, my view of academia was quite independent as I continuously sought to complement it with personal and professional endeavors such as freelance writing and internships. I found both the LSE and Sciences Po to be fertile grounds for such activities. Today, I work as an analyst for the World Economic Forum's Strategic Risk Foresight Team, which conducts global risk analysis and scenario planning on a variety of industry and regional issues. The World Economic Forum, best known for its Annual Meeting in Davos, is also a year-round hub for creating ties between public, private, and non-governmental players around thought leadership and societal development projects. In the words of one famous LSE alumnus, "For every photo-op with a celebrity […], there is a corporate citizenship deal struck that goes largely unnoticed -- but important to the people on the ground thousands of miles from Davos who will actually benefit." The work is fascinating and I benefit from my learnings at Sciences Po and LSE on a daily basis. In fact, several of my colleagues are fellow alumni of both schools. I feel studying at LSE and Sciences Po – two schools with highly diverse student bodies – was a great preparation for working in such a multicultural and international environment, where dozens of nationalities interact in multiple formal and informal working languages."
Irene de Lorenzo-Cáceres Cantero, LSE-Sciences Po Double Degree in European Studies, 2008-2010
"When I applied for the LSE – Sciences Po Double Degree in European Studies in 2008, I was a convinced young European who wanted to contribute her best to the European Union, especially through the creation of a true European identity. Nonetheless, in the course of my first year at Sciences Po, my academic and professional horizons were enlarged thanks to the contact with inspiring scholars such as Eiko Thielemann, who introduced me to a whole new topic which I soon became completely passionate about: international migration. In this regard, the flexibility of the European Institute's MSc programmes allowed me to specialise in international and EU migration policies during my year at LSE, with a focus on the human rights and development issues at stake. This shift was also evident in my extracurricular engagement at Sciences Po and LSE: whereas I fully participated in the vibrant student life of both schools, it was in London that I became involved with student societies like Amnesty International to help defend the rights of immigrants, refugees and asylum-seekers. The combination of my theoretical knowledge of EU migration policy and practical experience of human rights advocacy at grassroots level allowed me to coordinate a petition campaign launched by the Brussels-based NGO 'December 18' to urge EU Member States to ratify the UN Migrant Workers Convention immediately after finishing my dissertation at LSE in August 2010. In January 2011 I moved to New York and started interning at the Permanent Mission of Spain to the United Nations, with the main purpose of getting a migration-related job within the UN System. I owe the Double Degree for having widened the scope of my professional ambitions from the European to the global level, as well as having allowed me to find a new overall direction for my career: giving migration policies worldwide a more humane face, one of the main challenges which the international community will be confronted with in the coming decades."