US Embassy in Seoul Ends Its Internship Program

The US embassy in South Korea cannot win.  First they get criticized for having unpaid internship positions and now they get criticized for getting rid of the internship program:

A college student, who requested to be identified as Park, was supposed to start an internship at the U.S. Embassy in Seoul this December.

After receiving a letter of acceptance July 21, she was preparing for the program — finding a residence in Seoul and buying work clothes — while dreaming of a future career after the internship.

On Sept. 6, however, she learned the program was suspended. She received an email from the embassy, which read “The U.S. Embassy will not be moving forward with our Winter Internship at this time.”

Explanations from the embassy frustrated her.

“The embassy staff simply repeated the answer that the decision was made due to personnel affairs in the organization,” Park told The Korea Times.

The cancellation of the internship program was more devastating for Park because the winter program was her last chance to work there before her graduation. “I even gave up a full-time paid job which gave me a final acceptance notification to do the internship, because the latter was only allowed for university students,” Park said.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link, but this is what happens when interns complain about not getting paid.