The International Bulldogs program will extend its global reach next summer to additional cities in Turkey, Brazil and China.

The new internship opportunities in Istanbul, Joao Pessoa and Shanghai will increase the program’s total number of cities from 15 last year to 18 in summer 2008, UCS Director Philip Jones said. The Bulldogs in Beijing program will be discontinued next summer because of the Olympics, he said, but Bulldogs in India will be restarted after the University canceled it last year as a result of legal hurdles.

While the Bulldogs program is still growing, its rate of expansion has slowed this year, Associate Dean for International Affairs Jane Edwards said. The program ballooned in size after its inception in summer 2003, but the University’s focus is now on strengthening the quality of jobs, housing and contacts in Bulldogs programs in existing cities, Edwards said.

Programs in other cities — including Brussels, London and Madrid — will also offer more internships than last year, Jones said. He said he expects to be able to offer 260 International Bulldogs positions this year, up from 207 last year, although the final number will not be determined until early next year.

Several students interviewed said they might be interested in applying to the new programs, but the limited types of work some of the internships will offer may prompt them to look elsewhere for summer employment.

The projected per-person budget — which includes housing, airfare, food and other expenses — for both the Istanbul and Shanghai programs is $4,500, while the Brazil program will cost around $4,000, Jones said.

In a break from the traditional range of jobs offered in each program, the internships in Joao Pessoa — considered one of the “greenest” cities in the world — will all have an environmental focus, Jones said. He said he expects to offer six to eight positions through the Brazil program next summer.

The environmental emphasis did not appeal to Alan Montes ’10, who said although he was interested in spending the summer in Brazil, he would probably not apply for the Joao Pessoa internships.

“I still think that in order for it to attract a greater number of students … it should have a bit more of a range of positions,” Montes said.

Montes participated in the Bulldogs in Monterrey last summer.

Jones said the program may offer a wider variety of positions in future years. In general, he said, Bulldogs programs offer internships in a variety of fields, from finance to journalism to the arts.

Students in the Shanghai program will work mainly in finance, although advertising and public relations firms may also offer jobs, Jones said.

Alumni in China encouraged UCS to cancel the Beijing program for this summer and to establish one in Shanghai, Jones said. He said the graduates he spoke with were concerned that housing contracts might not be honored amid the chaos and increased demand for living space during the Olympics.

Juan He ’10, who has been to Beijing several times, said she would be interested in traveling to Shanghai. But unless any positions in health or the sciences open up, she said, she will investigate other summer options.

The new Istanbul program is the brainchild of Yale undergraduates, Jones said.

Over their summer vacations, members of Yale Friends of Turkey set up internships and evaluated housing options in Istanbul, YFT President Murat Can Bilgincan ’08 said. Members of the group hope that students working in Istanbul will gain an appreciation for Turkish culture that they could not develop on campus, he said.

“We feel that, for instance, a lot of people don’t know the difference between an Arab and a Turk,” Bilgincan said. “We think they will be very surprised once they get to Istanbul, and their perceptions based on films and readings will change instantaneously.”

Prospective employers in Istanbul include the Coca-Cola Co., Mercedes-Benz, the Turkish Daily News and Ogilvy & Mather, Bilgincan said.

Bulldogs in India, which began in summer 2006, will be back this summer after a one-year hiatus.

Last spring, the Indian government increased its enforcement of regulations on foreign educational institutions operating in India and changed student and professor visa requirements. The University decided to cancel the program because there was not enough time to allow students to satisfy the new rules, Jones said.

But UCS officials are confident that the India program will be operational for summer 2008 and will likely offer about 12 internships in New Delhi.

Housing and internships for all cities are still being tweaked and will be finalized in the next few months, Jones said. The positions will be listed on Yale’s eRecruiting Web site sometime after Thanksgiving break, he said.

Over the past five summers, more than 500 Yalies have participated in Bulldogs internships.