A Sussex University student will learn about US politics from the inside when she takes up a summer internship at the White House.

Hermione Holland, 23, a final-year student in international relations and development studies at the University of Sussex in Brighton, will be assigned to a senator's office for the three-month post.

She was selected as one of ten successful candidates from 150 applicants.

Hermione said: "Since September 11, we've been shown Britain and the US are closely linked."

Hermione has previously worked for an aid agency in Ecuador, which she represented at a United Nations meeting in New York in October 2000.

She is organising a concert in May to help raise the £3,000 cost of the post.