Manali Misra didn't arrive at The Washington Center’s (TWC) National Security seminar expecting it to change the direction of her career. A bioinformatics major at Juniata College in Pennsylvania, she came because a professor pointed her toward a question her coursework hadn't fully answered: how does the science she works with every day actually get governed, and by whom?
One week of panels, site visits and practitioner conversations later, she had a clearer answer, a follow-up meeting at the American Enterprise Institute and a new lens she's carrying into her summer internship at Merck.
How did your path to this program start?
An international politics class during my junior year made me realize how interdependent the sciences and social sciences actually are, particularly when it comes to how technology shapes policy. My professor encouraged me to apply to the National Security seminar as a way to explore the diplomatic and governance side of that intersection. That's what drew me in.
How did the seminar connect to your coursework?
As a bioinformatics student, I spend most of my time thinking about how biological data and computational tools intersect. The seminar showed me that the same questions, about who controls the data, who governs the technology, and who benefits from its applications, are also some of the most consequential national security questions of our time. It gave me a vocabulary I didn't have before for talking about intellectual property, biosecurity, and emerging technology governance. That changed how I read everything I encountered for the rest of the week.
Which speaker or panel left the biggest impression?
The panel with Ryan Fedasiuk. I asked him about AI in drug discovery and what it means for intellectual property and biosecurity. He responded seriously, encouraged me to dig deeper, and connected me with a colleague at the American Enterprise Institute working on biosecurity. That led to a follow-up visit to AEI's offices and a one-on-one conversation on the same topic. One question at a public event opened a door into a field I'm now actively pursuing.
Was there a moment during the week when something clicked?
I attended a C-SPAN Book Club event with Kara Swisher and David Rubenstein through TWC. When Swisher spoke about AI's role in oncology drug discovery, I realized the policy framework I had been building all week wasn't just an academic exercise. It was something I could bring directly into my summer internship at Merck. The seminar didn't just teach me about national security. It gave me a way of seeing my own field that I'll carry into every project I take on.
What did you walk away with?
I learned how to ask better questions, specifically how to engage senior practitioners in a way that produces real answers. I also learned to read across disciplines. As someone interested in patent law and the life sciences, I now have a much clearer sense of how science, law, and policy intersect in practice, not just in theory.
What would you tell a student considering applying?
Apply, and come ready to do the work. The students who walked into rooms with prepared questions, followed up the same day, and stayed in conversation with the people they met are the ones who walked out with real connections and a clearer sense of where they're heading. Treat it as the start of something, not something to passively absorb.
TWC's short-term programs put students in Washington, D.C. for one week or less, inside briefings, panels and direct conversations with industry leaders. One prepared question can open a door that a cold application never would. See upcoming programs.
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