Networking and the geopolitics of outer space
Maya Arun - 15 July 2025
Ditchley Park, Oxfordshire, U.K.
Magdelan College, University of Oxford
Bodleian Library, University of Oxford
Grassy path to Ditchley Park
When Cody Mackoway first applied to The Ditchley Foundation program, he couldn’t have predicted what he would actually take away from the internship.
Every year, four to five “Eric Newell interns” are selected to participate in a summer internship program with . The program is undeniably one-of-a-kind, consisting of a six-week virtual internship followed by a one-week residency at Ditchley Park in the small town of Charlbury, Oxfordshire, England.
Working alongside fellow interns from Canada and the U.K., Cody networked in the realm of international relations.
Interns were given the choice to differentiate into quantitative analysis or network expansion roles. He chose network expansion, where he researched the geopolitics of outer space.
Cody and other interns were tasked with designing a conference around the topic, researching key individuals from various sectors across the world and delegating roles to them in this conference. As exciting as the research segment of the internship was, the residency was the grandest part of his experience.
“We got to stay at their headquarters outside of Oxford, where we would do a few different things. We got to tour around Oxford University and meet professors and other influential people relevant to our interests as a group of interns. We did a sort of mock Ditchley conference where we had some speakers present the research we did. And then we had networking opportunities. We met a series of key influential Canadian people in the U.K. who work at 10 Downing Street, think tanks or the .”
Don’t let the short-term nature of the program fool you — geared towards networking, the internship was the scaffolding that gave Cody a sense of direction in his career.
Now working as a research and policy analyst at the ϲ Counsel, Cody credits his internship in part, for the experience he needed to land the role.
“It’s also widened my ambitions to pursue graduate studies further, either abroad in the U.K. or in Canada. But having those kinds of connections to people who are in academia or other research-related fields has made me a bit more eager to apply and seek further education, either now or in the future.”
“I think any internship abroad is great for international experience.”
According to Cody, it can really transform the way you see your future. As unexpected as it was, he felt a source of tremendous fulfilment in designing that conference — being able to talk to experts and finding a niche that he was interested in was beyond his wildest expectations.