For those of you who may not be familiar with the VSFS, it is a U.S. Department of State program that allows students to intern virtually with the Department of State and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) domestic offices and overseas posts as well as others offices within the U.S. government. Although it makes getting coffee for the office a little difficult, it harnesses the interconnected reach and utility of technology and provides a rich experience for the intern and the office alike.

Both my academic and professional careers were hugely influenced by my volunteering experiences. I have always worked with ethnic minority communities, who have often been marginalised from the wider and dominant culture of society. I have actively participated in projects focused on advocating for the rights of women who had no recourse to UK public funds and were experiencing domestic violence. This influenced my decision to apply my knowledge of social work principles, techniques and practices to complex cases and community issues in international development.

At its core, the Latin Alternative Music Conference is a gathering of dedicated underdogs, rallying behind music that envisions a polyglot, multicultural, border-hopping 21st-century culture but faces stubborn barriers, in the United States, of language and radio formats. The term “Latin alternative” makes room for pop, indie-rock, electronica, hip-hop, punk and hard rock, all loosely connected by a willingness to push past divisions of genre and geography.

For decades, a so-called anti-propaganda law prevented the U.S. government's mammoth broadcasting arm from delivering programming to American audiences. But on July 2, that came silently to an end with the implementation of a new reform passed in January. The result: an unleashing of thousands of hours per week of government-funded radio and TV programs for domestic U.S. consumption in a reform initially criticized as a green light for U.S. domestic propaganda efforts. So what just happened?

The two primary functions of the ministry are the projection of public policy to the people of Pakistan and conducting public diplomacy, both at home and overseas. The public policy is the government’s decision of doing or not doing something. The importance of public policy projection is well documented in the study of public management. Before the media’s freedom, the ministry performed this function through its various departments, but now the media anchors provide sufficient opportunity to government representatives to justify their policies and actions.

India’s global ambitions have grown remarkably over the past decade. However, questions are being raised about the capacity of its diplomatic corps to act as an effective catalyst in India’s transformation to a global power. Analysts are asking whether the Indian Foreign Service (IFS) has the numerical strength to project India’s influence in a manner befitting an emerging power. Do its officers have the expertise to engage in the kind of complex diplomacy that is required of a global power?

Besides keeping the department of national defense from falling asleep at their desks, there's the chance that Canadian forces might be being used to advance diplomatic relations with Brazil, enhancing the two countries' trading relationship by lessening Brazil's load in Haiti...It’s also indicative of the post-Afghanistan landscape, where Western militaries are having their budgets tightened as they withdraw from the final frontier of the original war on terror.

In the end, this war will be won through changing hearts and minds—or in other words, public diplomacy. We need education to reinforce the principle that killing animals is not cool and that the crime of poaching will lead to serious consequences.Whether it is good luck, wisdom or patience, elephants are vital to our planet and must stay front and center in the global mindset until their slaughter is stopped.