W&M intern presents to Air Combat Command
On Friday, April 19th, Mr. William D. "Will" Shimer '13, an international relations major, presented his brief, "Turkish Refugee Camps: Building A New Syria" to a Headquarters Air Combat Command audience at Langley Air Force Base.
The briefing was chaired by the Dr. Albert "Bull" Mitchum, political advisor to the commander of USAF Air Combat Command (ACC) and included nine other staff members from Public Affairs, International Affairs, and International Health Specialists as well as two of Shimer' peers with ties to William & Mary's elite undergraduate think tank, the Project for International Peace and Security (PIPS).
The idea for the ACC-W&M intern program was conceived last fall and officially commenced at the beginning of the spring semester in January 2013.
Shimer, a native of Richmond, and Heather McCormic '14, from Virginia Beach, volunteered to kick-off the joint project which exposes undergraduates to Department of Defense, Department of the Air Force, United States Air Force, and Air Combat Command uniformed military and government civilian career fields.
After Shimer completed his 15-slide presentation which advocated the creation of indigenous Adult Education Programs in each of the current Syrian refugee camps across the border in Turkey, Dr. Mitchum congratulated him for "taking on a tough topic," using only open sources for research, and his conceptualization of "incubators for leadership" for a post-Assad Syria.
Dr. Mitchum then presented ACC International Affairs unit coins to both Shimer and McCormic, and thanked them for their extracurricular work during their last semester at William & Mary.
