I am writing to inform you

Dear Washington Center Hopefuls:

I am writing to inform you that this is my last week behind the DCenes. I know. I know. It is sadly tragic. I will miss me, too. I am sure you won’t miss me too much, as is the way of this evanescent town. The stars that twinkle the brightest are those that fall and fade the fastest.

Enough poetic heartbreak. *tear*

I have begun the long and arduous project of job searching. I, who may be younger than a lot of interns, still have two years of school left. I am just looking for what possibilities might be open to me now that I have this experience under my belt. Never hurts to aim high, eh? The only way to hit the duck is to lead it a little bit. Mayhap I can even land some sort of part-time as some sort of pseudo-paralegal. Never hurts to try. I am also already working on what I want to do next semester. I was very fortunate in that some money came through from my school at the last minute in the form of a scholarship/grant. So now I can use this summer (unpaid though it was) as a springboard for my next great adventure. Since I got a head-start on things, I am able to take the information that I learned here and apply it forward to what I might want to explore down the road. I think I will put to use that finance major--try to get into some international micro-financing. I have some peeps out here that are going to help me apply around.

However, the more “typical” intern (being the graduate or the senior) has many triumphs to share. Many organizations hire interns that are close to graduation; they try them on like a glove, and if they fit by the end of the summer, they get a job offer. I can say that at least two of my Law and Criminal Justice friends have gotten job offers from their internship sites. I think the law enforcement field in this area is always ripe for recruitment of criminal justice majors like this. So, prospective interns, you might want to keep that in mind. Now, I can’t say as much for pre-law students. However, work hard, keep a smile on your face, and I can guarantee a few strong references, which as we all know as we start to apply to law school, might come in handy.

Let’s talk portfolio for a minute. Nothing too much to say on it that I have not covered previously. I would recommend asking your supervisor if it is permissible to print off the requisite two copies on the work printer. You could save some dough that way if you can obtain permission. Also, you can get your portfolios bound at the absolute last second, because FedEx Kinkos is on more corners than Starbucks and it is open 24/7. It only takes 5-10 minutes to bind the portfolio and it’s around $10.

This week has been a fun one. My friend from St. Louis was supposed to come up to visit on Friday, but he flew through O’Hare (Chicago) so naturally, he didn’t make it here on Friday. Well, he came with practically no sleep, only to find out that I had to do an overnight at a women’s shelter his first night in town. What a great host am I, no? So we ran around town and visited the Natural History Museum to see the gigantic primordial sloth. Then we ate in Chinatown. That seemed to be a hit with my friend. I think he has eaten like 3 meals there in two days Chinatown is a fun place to eat. The selection is good and diverse. I recommend trying it out.

We did the overnight at the shelter; very uneventful. We just played checkers, cards, and Scrabble. The most fruitful portion of the night came when we devised a new version of War that was inspired by Heath Ledger’s portrayal of the Joker. Wow, can you tell we were tired?

The next day we ran around again. The highlight of the day was definitely running around Georgetown. That is a fun part of the city. It is so quaint. The shopping is very fun and trendy, if you are given to such things. We checked out the Georgetown campus-man, it is gorgeous. It is situated up on a bluff, shaded by trees, and dominated by glorious masonry. Boy, I would like to go there for law school. They receive 11,000 applications for 300 slots every year. Think I can get in with my practice LSAT of 158? Haha! It’s not funny…

Why were we out on that side of town? Well, we were going to see those famous stairs from the movie The Exorcist. Then something strange happened…

Boy, that wasn’t staged…

Just to wrap things up, here is a picture of me and the roomies at our Commencement Event today:

How ya been? Aight? Alright? Is all right?

Let’s start with Jazz in the Sculpture Garden. Ladies and Gentlemen, this event is recommended. It takes place every Friday evening from 5:30 to 8:30. If you work downtown, this event is a must. If you can get off work just a little early and get down there just a little bit after 5:00 PM, there will be space to sit. Items to bring: a blanket to sit on, things to nibble on, things to sip. It requires a bit of planning because you need to have the stuff ready when you leave work. Dress is business formal unwound after a hard day’s work. The crowd is younger. It takes place in the Statue Garden right between the National Gallery of Art, West and East. The set up is right around the fountain and in the shade. The jazz is live and it is good. Enjoy!

While we were there, I decided that it was time to celebrate my roommate’s 23rd birthday. Why? Because we all missed it the first time around. I missed it because I plugged it into my Outlook calendar for July 25. I was like a month and a week off, but oh well, I simply couldn’t reschedule…So anyway we celebrated his birthday by patting him on the back and laughing at him as he cut the cheese…that we brought to eat with our crackers. You take me?

This Saturday, I got stir crazy from writing various things for my portfolio and ran downtown to the National Gallery of Art to check it out. I am a sucker for museums. I was pleasantly surprised with the National Gallery, actually. It had a fun collection to look at. It had an entire room dedicated to each of the following artists: Van Gogh, Monet, Manet, and Degas. Fun stuff, that.

This Monday, we had a tour through The Washington Center of the Pentagon. We came in and they were like “You cannot pull out your cell phone, or it is ours. You cannot go to the bathroom or drink from a water fountain.” So I started the tour like “uh-oh,” because my roommate, Joe called me right as I was passing through security to get in. The tour seemed a little hurried, but it started out well. We were shown the 9/11 memorial. It was very powerful; very well done. I think the honor guards that were giving the tour were a little perturbed at the group’s level appreciation for what happened. Oh, well.

After the tour, I rushed back across the Potomac to attend class (which is held at a Johns Hopkins building). Class was fun because Professor Hardy gave a little seminar on law school. He titled it:

The Three Things You Need to Know About Law School: How to Get In, How to Stay Alive, and How to Get Out Alive.

If I had to pick the most fun thing that happened on Tuesday, I supposed I would have to pick the talk with the Attorney General. That was actually my first trip down to Main Justice. So we were sitting in this auditorium with these chintzy, 30 ft. tall nude statues that looked like the Oscar. I think they were supposed to represent Justice? The thing that was awesome was the curtain behind the podium was just blocking from view a hallway that extended back into Main Justice. Then, out filed several secret service agents, all bald, all 6’4” (at least), followed by staff persons. The event was for the Attorney General to thank all of the interns that are working for the Department of Justice. There must have been several hundred in the auditorium. The DOJ is a big department, so they say: 100,000 employees. It is the biggest law firm in the country. Main Justice is the highest concentration of average lawyers per square feet in the world (that last one I just made up because it sounded cool).

The AG offered some general remarks and then opened the floor up to questions. The first question was from a law clerk that used to intern in the Office for Civil Rights (like me ;)—did that attempt at an emoticon work?). She now works in the Civil Rights Division, though.

Phew! I am really running for it at work now. I am on the final stretch and I am trying to desperately to finish everything up. Today, I just submitted a rough draft of a 40-page outline for a report, before turning to the loads of case files that have been waiting for me for like a month. I love it though. The work is fun, challenging, and intellectually stimulating to the point that I don’t have much wit by the end of the day.

However, that worked out well today. Why? Because my roommate and I went to pack books for the Prisoner Book Project again today. It’s a good way to blow of steam, and it is so much fun picking out books to match the inmate’s requests. I just send them the books that I like that match the category. Like one inmate, today requested any John Grisham novel, so I hooked him up, because Grisham is a great author. Actually, I have two of his books that I have been meaning to donate to the Project, but keep forgetting. When we arrived, the whole room was filled with an entire law library that had been dropped off. I don’t know what happened, but I think some old dusty lawyer just died or retired somewhere. The lady who is in charge of the Project said that we should take a book if we were interested, because they were going to dispose of most of the massive donation. So I picked up a copy of the federal civil procedure for some light reading on the way out.

I know I have been promising some advice on the portfolios, but there is not a whole lot to give, now that I am most of the way done with it. Find the nearest Kinko’s--I hear they can bind it in about a half-hour, for around $30. Have two copies printed out before you go to save money. My main recommendation is to sit down the first week you are in town, during your orientation and read through the syllabus so that you know what you need to do ahead of time. Lay yourself out a time table to complete the projects. It is common sense, but a lot of people waited until the last minute and are just making up there informational interviews and such. Don’t do that, because there is so much to be gained from that assignment especially. If you are a real go-getter and have already talked to several professionals in your field of interest do this: go after a big fish. Start early, send a letter requesting an interview with someone big—top brass. Do a Google search to look up how to secure an interview with such people. Also research the person and the company they work for. The easiest way to do it? Make friends at work, attend social events and network. You will eventually meet someone who would be more than happy to blow their horn for you.

The thing that is important to remember about the Intern Defense Letter is that there is no way you can write it within the suggested page amount without it being low caliber. Feel free to prove me wrong, because I am notoriously long-winded. The most efficient way to complete it is to literally use your Learning Objectives Statement as an outline—remember the Defense Letter is to be in a business letter format addressed to your campus liaison.

I cannot stress HOW IMPORTANT your Learning Objectives Statement (LOS) is. This is the tool that will help you focus your energies and make sure you get done what you want to get done during the course of your time in Washington. So it is important that you take the time to write a good LOS. You should also tweak it as you go along so that you can evaluate your progress throughout the course of the term. I actually had my supervisor review it with me (that may be a requirement, I cannot remember right off hand) several times through out the semester to get his input and feedback on my progress. I had him evaluate it before I turned in the rough draft, at the midterm, and after I was evaluated at my site visit by my Program Advisor from the Washington Center.

Civic Engagement Project. Maybe I am just biased toward this aspect of Washington because I am a sucker for social justice? Except for writing the paper, I loved doing this one. There are so many ways to get involved and so many good ideas on how to go about it. The idea behind the project is to pick a cause, connect it to a broader issue and make a positive contribution to the cause through an organization and on your own. Then, at the end, you pull it all together and argue for what contributions you made. My roommates have found some very creative ways to approach this. One combined ultimate Frisbee, sports, and little kids into two weekends of fun. How sweet is that? Another has this elaborate project where he is championing the cause for Zimbabwe. His project is really salient, because of all of the political unrest that has been in the headlines recently. Refer back a few entries; I give my best advice on how to find excellent volunteer opportunities (both for the proactivators and the procrastinators).

Leadership Forum Analysis. Let’s be realistic, shall we? There is a research and analysis component in the portfolio. You have a choice between 3 assignments. One is 2-3 pages, the other two are 6-7 with research? Which will you elect to do (as a summer student) before I even explain what the assignments are? Yes. The Leadership Forum Analysis. The best way to approach this one is to get on Internconnect, look up the various speakers or events that the Washington Center has planned, and then take notes at the one you are interested in doing an analysis of. If you lose your notes when it comes time to write your analysis, get on Internconnect, read their bio, and then Google them for more information.

That is all of the main ones methinks. Until next week. Adios!

My weekly dose of Justice

Howdy all. This week was a particularly fun and productive week outside of work. At work, I have basically been playing phone tag with witnesses trying to track a complainant down with no success. So let’s just squawk a little bit about the goings-on outside of work.

This weekend my roommate’s dad flew in from Canada. He was in the area on business—or was supposed to be. His trip was cancelled and he had the tickets, so he came for a long weekend. It was great to be able to meet him. He is a case study in what my roommate will look like few years down the line. They look exactly the same. What’s more, he VERY generously entertained us with dinner (I am not sure I have paid that much for food this entire summer—hyperbole? Don’t be so sure…). In all earnestness, thank you Mr. Johnson for a wonderful evening!

Anyway, enough of the previous malarkey. Once again I went to the same church in Fairfax County. I am ecstatic because the pastor allowed me to borrow the audio CDs from a conference put on by Morningstar Ministries on Faith Healing. I am pretty sure my roomies thought I had lost it when they found me loading those up to my computer the other night. I am surprised it took them that long to question my sanity…Anyway, after church I went out to eat with a friend, Donald, who is from the Congo. We were celebrating the new job that he got. He has been in the area for over a year looking for a decent job. He is totally legal and has all of his papers in order. He is very qualified, articulate, and competent. In fact, he even received his Master’s in the US. He has just had a hard road. It is just a tragic fact that our country is xenophobic. It is even worse in Donald’s case, as he also encounters racism. This is something I am not used to witnessing, being from Iowa, which can be said to be almost homogenous demographically. So it is very eye-opening, and I must say hard, for my naïve eyes to witness racial prejudice when it is displayed. Of course, I am not exempting myself, because I inadvertently stereotype as much as the next person who has not walked in another’s shoes. I am just saying, now that I live in an area where I am the minority I can’t be oblivious to it when it occurs.

On Monday, the Law and Criminal Justice programming for The Washington Center was very entertaining and informative. The Arlington K-9 unit came for a demonstration. There were two deputies that lead the presentation. Deputy Varius and…I can’t remember the name of the second one. Deputy Varius got a little rowdy, but overall, he was a very well behaved dog. You read me right. I wrote dog. I guess I didn’t realize that they have to deputize a dog in order for it to perform police functions. It makes sense when you think about it. That way it can assist in lawful searches and seizures of person and property. Deputy Varius was a black lab, very smart and entertaining. He was a neutral response narcotics dog... He is trained not to bark, bite or scratch. He sits when he finds something. Apparently dogs can be used to sniff out about anything. The human deputy talked about narc dogs, chemical weapon dogs, biohazard dogs, and explosives dogs. The two most crazy ones he mentioned where cancer and disease sniffing dogs and cadaver dogs. I hope I don’t have need of either of those two in the near future.

The speaker in the presidential lecture series was Shelia Johnson. Quite frankly, this lady was impressive. She is a mogul of mega magnitude. She owns the following teams: The Washington Mystics (WMBA), Wizards (NBA), and Capitols (NHL). She is also the co-founder of the Black Entertainment Channel (BET). Just for the record, she disowns the current image of that network.

By far, the best part of my week is the National Institute of Justice Conference that my office allowed me to attend. It was three days of nonstop criminal justice sweet learning. It really was an incredible opportunity to educate myself on what is cooking in the criminal justice field. There were several themes in the conference which focused on how science and technology are starting to change the face of criminal justice. Crime mapping was all the rage. There were nine classes offered on it. I only attended one, since I have no plans to be a crime analyst in the near future. However, it was incredibly interesting. With developing technologies, crime data is getting easier to collect and analyze on a local, state, and national level. The fact is that policy decision making is going to become even more data-driven in the future as more, clear data becomes the expectation. If you are going to go into criminal justice, just keep that in mind. And if you are going work for the government in criminal justice, definitely get ready.

What is really cool is that several offices within the Office of Justice Programs (the one that contains my office) gave a presentation on Prison Rape Elimination (PREA) findings, which is all the rage in my office right now. It has kept me busy all summer with research and analysis. Right now we are preparing a report of policy recommendations for Congress. They were presenting findings of a few parallel reports. I took down their policy recommendations for PREA and I plan to share them with my supervising attorney just for kicks.

I also learned about various after school programs for at-risk youth and whether or not they impact crime reduction. I have very good impressions about the effects of these kinds of programs (if run properly). There is one in my hometown that I used to help with. I saw the day-to-day results with the children. Although I have no numbers to back me up, I have experiences to say that this stuff can really have positive impact. That is one of the reasons why the trend toward the numbers is a good deal. If you have the data to back up your word, you can get policymakers’ attention and cooperation.

There was also a very neat class on how local law enforcement is using the internet as a tool for law enforcement. There is so much in this category that I am just going to skip it altogether and talk about the sweet armor testing DVDs that I wanted to take. They had all of these booths with crazy robotics, body armor, microwave guns, with free DVD demonstrations. I felt like it was a real life HALO game.

The best segment, at least for my tastes was one on prisoner re-entry programs. After learning about various programs available for prisoners about to re-enter normal life, the audience was dazzled for the remainder of the segment. Check this out: the Prisoner Entrepreneur Program (PEP). An incredible prisoner re-entry program in Texas. This 6-figure financial guru toured a prison in Texas and saw that all of the inmates were adept businessmen, but their efforts were misdirected. So she just moved to Texas, raised the funds, and started a faith-based entrepreneurial training program for inmates approaching release. This program is comprehensive, highly selective, and highly successful. It reaches well beyond the prisoner’s release. It is just downright impressive. I can’t rave about it enough. Let me just put it this way, I have become well acquainted with the many ills inherent in the Texas correctional system this summer so this is very heartening to me. In fact, I have pretty much made up my mind that I have to figure out how to land an internship there next summer.

Speaking of prisons, one of my roomies and I rolled on out to Foundry Methodist Church after work today to participate in their Books for Prisoner’s project. I came across the first week I was in town. I was lost trying to find The Washington Center’s building and decided to stop into a nearby church to check out their service schedule. It just so happened that Foundry Methodist is crazy on social justice (my kind of church) and had a million programs to get involved with. So anyway, we checked out this program and here is how it works. It is a relatively simple concept, but it is well done. People donate books; we shelve them in the stacks so that they are easy to sort through. Prisoners from across the country write in with requests for different kinds of books. We go through the stacks, find a book to fit their request and mail it off to them. My suspicions were correct on the evening. I guessed that dictionaries, thesauruses, and law material would be popular because they are engaged in various letter writing campaigns.

Anyway, you all have good one, ya hear?

Intern by Day…Masked Crusader by Night?

I wish… I just thought I would throw up a sweet title to try and attract your attention. I have been keeping busy since the last time we chatted. The emails that The Washington Center has been promising have started to roll into my mailbox and I am loving it! I was starting to get a little burnt out trying to seek out all of these things on my own. Now with a little bit of added help, I can sustain my nightly activities.

Nightly activities? My, doesn’t that sound illicit?! This is what I mean. You see, as an intern in DC you have the fabulous opportunity to work by day and still participate in all kinds of activities, seminars, etc. in the evening.

I’ll start at the top of the list. I met with yet another University of Iowa Alum who is an attorney that works with a nonprofit organization that fights for journalists’ first amendment rights. She had many interesting things to say about life, law school, getting a job, working and living in DC. I really enjoy the chance to get to talk to alumni from my school that have settled down to work in this area as attorneys. We share a common link (our school) that allows us to begin on a common ground, so that we can easily develop a rapport. Then, we can let the conversation be driven by similar interests (law and public policy).

My program advisor from The Washington Center did the on-sight visit to my internship site and talked with my supervising attorney and me. It was there that I learned that none of the half dozen informational interviews I have conducted fit the requirement for the portfolio that I am working on for The Washington Center (we have to interview someone outside of our own office). It did not surprise me a whole lot, nor did I really care. I was in the process of trying to line up a few interviews anyway with some civil rights attorneys from the Civil Rights Division (the litigation arm of the part of the DOJ that I work in). In fact, it just dawned on me that I could use my most recent meeting with the Iowa Alum. She is an attorney outside of my office. She works with first amendment rights. The distinction here is that she works with civil liberties and I work with civil rights.

Anyway, I also attended an orientation for N Street Village. I encourage you to follow the link because this place is amazing. I am proud of this place. Its founding congregation is a Lutheran church (I come from a Lutheran upbringing). I have always liked the flavor for social ministry in the Lutheran church…I digress. N Street Village is a complex of shelters and programs for homeless women. They have a temporary overnight shelter and a longer term program. What is really impressive is that they have excellent programs for drug addiction and mental illness. They also have low income affordable housing for their graduates so they can get back on their feet. I love this program because it is a case study in what I would like to do with my life. I would love to help set up a program like this some day. It would be awesome!

Now I am trying to get signed up to do a few overnight shifts at their temporary shelter. I am already helping out at another program for homeless women, but I am trying to see as many of these programs as I can so that I can get a better understanding of how they work.

After I went to that orientation, I attended a little Peace Corps session. I found out that I will be decently qualified after I graduate to be come a “business advisor” in a foreign country. I would really like to go to Latin American if possible. Here is why: I am interested in the business development of Latin America. My roommate is actually interning for the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) as we speak. The reason why I bring this up, is because any work I would be doing down there with Peace Corps would be very closely related to what the IDB does. To make my interest run even deeper, I have made very good acquaintance with a congregant of the Menonite Church I have been attending who also works at the IDB. I met up with him in Chinatown to chat over lunch about the kind of work he does. He is originally from Peru, but he used to do business development work in Bolivia with Latin American development group called Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA). MEDA does very similar work to what I would be doing in the Peace Corps, as well.

So here is a thought: graduate, do Peace Corps for the 27 months, maybe try to get a job with MEDA and just stay down there and enjoy. I suppose if that doesn’t work out I can always come back and do law school. Remember, after you take the LSAT, it is good for 5 years. In order to meet the Peace Corps requirements for Latin America, I have to take some more Spanish classes (not a big problem). One has to be conversationally proficient at the time of departure, because one will likely have to learn a local dialect or language on the side.

Back to the real world. On Sunday, my rommies and I went to a Nats game with a group of Washington Center interns from Grosvenor Tower (where I live). That was pretty fun. This is actually the first picture I have gotten of all three of my roomies.

There is the park. As we walked in we were handed a flier that said “Rename the National’s Stadium the Exxon Mobile Stadium.” I just thought that was funny, being in Washington and all.

Another great thing is that I was able to attend an “Advanced Westlaw Training Seminar.” If you are applying for the Law and Criminal Justice program and you are interested in becoming a lawyer, then I assume you have at least heard of Westlaw. It’s a crazily comprehensive research tool that every self-respecting office with a lawyer has. It is all the rage, eh? If that was a new one for you, follow these links really quick, just so that you familiarize yourself with the tools of the trade:

Westlaw
Lexis
Findlaw

Since I am interested in the possibility of starting up a nonprofit legal clinic of some kind, I have been looking into this wonderful organization that does training on grant-writing, grant-winning, and nonprofit management. Let me give a little pitch for them. Monthly, they offer free classes on these sorts of things that you can attend of your own volition, with out being an agent of an established nonprofit. They also have library available for grant research, which I assume could come in quite handy. The Foundation Center is the name, and being a valuable resource to nonprofits is its game. I attended a class on financing education through foundation grants. While I didn’t find the information all that useful, because I have done my homework in that field, it gave me access to check out their resources. Thumbs up!

Earlier, I mentioned that I have started to get notices in my mailbox from the Washington Center about events going on around town. This morning I received a notice that there would be a Federal Agency Job Fair this evening. I started scrambling to try and get my goods together. I really was not prepared to attend it. I didn’t have any copies of my resume. I had like three business cards on my person. I had done no homework on the agencies that I wanted to talk to. Tip: when you go to a career fair, do all of the above. Although, I knew I had no clue what I was doing, I went anyway because it was such an invaluable opportunity that I couldn’t stand to miss out on it. I just looked through the listing of agencies and checked the ones I was interested in. Then I just floated around to their tables and picked up their general information. I eavesdropped a little bit on the recruiters to try and get an idea of what questions I should be asking them. Overall, I am glad that I went. However, I just don’t think I am close enough to graduation to be seriously considered by any of the agencies there.

With that, I bid you a good week.

Honda Civic Engagement

Thank you…thank you…I know…that was not a good pun.

This week I started on my civic engagement. The only reason why it has taken me this long to get into it is because I have been very picky with what kind of volunteerism I wanted to do, so I have just now received some bites.

I came out here with an interest in social justice and between the nature of my work at the Office for Civil Rights, the group of friends I have fallen in with at church, and the volunteer opportunities I have found I am beginning to think it might develop into a passion. Maybe? Maybe? I don’t know…

This weekend I stayed overnight at a women’s homeless shelter called Pathways. It was an incredible experience. I can’t say much more because I need to do a better job honoring the confidentially agreements I have been signing. I am actually signed up to work at three of these kinds of shelters, all told, doing the overnight monitoring. The next one I am going to do is a men’s shelter, so it will be an entirely different experience. Basically, all I do as an overnight monitor is diffuse contentious situations and deal with emergencies. So, on a quiet night, what I do is smile then sleep. It is awesome getting to talk to the people you get to work with. They can teach you a lot about life. The night was kind of hectic, but it was really rewarding.

That was Saturday. Then, on Sunday, I attended a Mennonite church that I went to last week on invitation from a co-worker. The pastor invited me over to his house for a post-service fiesta. I got my first chance in a while to dust off my Spanish speaking non-ability…yeah, I was even worse than I thought. I made friends with a fellow who had just turned 18, but had already been through more than I could stand in one lifetime. His life is a remarkable story.

Monday was some of the best Washington Center programming yet. We had the Secretary of Commerce come and speak to us. He was an excellent speaker with excellent things to say. My roommate got up and asked the second killer question in a row. This time, he actually got it answered. Last time it was to a panel of former congressmen. You can guess how directly they answered it. I really enjoyed what the Secretary had to say—so much so that I did not notice the Secret Service agent in the aisles.

Tuesday, I got the opportunity to do client intake at the free immigration clinic in Fairfax County called Just Neighbors. My partner was a former tax attorney. My partner and I worked with one client the entire evening, basically just asked a bunch of questions, making copies of documents, and calming her children. This was one of the most rewarding experiences of the summer; a chance to interact with attorneys, a chance to interact with disadvantaged clients, and a chance to do what I want to do with my life.

Today was just a busy day at work. I have done extra hours the last two days just because we are approaching a deadline. That prison rape policy recommendations report is due to Congress, I suppose.

Maybe I should talk about Independence Day weekend. My roomies and went and saw the parade.

This picture is the entire parade. No. I am just kidding. I just had to take this picture because I thought it was so sweet.

We were just trying to watch the bagpipers when this helicopter flew over us and landed on the White House lawn. Apparently, GW was coming in from swearing in some new citizens at Monticello (Thomas Jefferson’s old flat). So I guess I can say I saw the President at the White House while I was in town, eh?

I guess while I am on the pictures and talking about the parade. I might as well post this. I have been promising my roomies a ten page exposé, but this will have to do. These are the two the came along to the parade. The Fourth was actually out campaigning for Obama that morning. What makes that even better is that he is not even a U.S. citizen and he has been more politically active than us Americans. The fellow with the Indian’s hat is Gary Richard Thaxton from right around Cleveland, Ohio. He works at Interpol (which I found out is a branch of the Department of Justice). The fellow on the right that the creepy guy in the background is recording is Joseph Ducharme. He is from Massachusetts. He works with the Metropolitan Police Station. Can you tell that I didn’t really watch the parade?

After about halfway through the parade we were hot, bored, and burnt. So we walked around DC while, since there were no crowds (everyone was at the parade). We went and got our pictures taken by the White House.

Yeah. That is me to try to be cool. It does not always work, but I am pretty sure this one worked out. Maybe? Maybe?

In a surreal moment, I was taking a picture of the White House and I realized there was a fellow standing on top of it taking a picture of me through digital binoculars.

Of course, that night we went and saw the fireworks on the Mall. We were right in front of the Washington Monument. Check out this picture. You can see the Lincoln in the background and the Reflecting Pool.

And lastly, here is the one and only artistic thing I will probably get around to doing this summer. I call it TIMElaspes When You are Having Fun in DC.

I have question for you.

What is sweeter than two Independence Days in one week? Two? That is right. July 1st and July 4th. Happy Canada Day! I woke up on the 1st and my roomie from Toronto was wearing a red bow tie to celebrate the occasion. Another roommate and I wanted to get in on the celebration so we donned our red ties and white shirts and talked about syrup and extended medical waiting room visits as we ate breakfast. My roomie regaled us with an inspired rendition of “O Canada.” I tried to follow it up with the only Canadian song I knew (or though I knew). It has the words “…land of the beaver...” That is about all I remember. He knew it, though. Then I tested my knowledge of the Canadian provinces and lost. I named all of them, but I named some of the “territories” as “provinces.” I also forgot the new territory, Nunavut. But in all seriousness, we met up at the Canadian Embassy for lunch. It was crazy jam-packed. We had a great time. What’s more, I saw folks proudly wearing the Canadian colors all day as I ran around town on the Metro. I am really glad I had a chance to celebrate it. It was a blast.

This last week has been a very fun one. Now that I am settled into the groove of things and have burnt myself out as a tourist (at least for now because this weekend is the 4th), I am starting to really dig into what I want to get out of my summer in DC. What is that? Knowledge from other people’s experience and exposure to things I am considering doing with my life.

To start with I went to a free Kaplan event. It was an MBA (Masters of Business Administration) night. There was a little MBA program fair there; they talked about the admissions process, and the GMAT (the test you have to take to get into most MBA programs). Let me quickly give a little plug for Kaplan. I am well acquainted with them because they terrorize my campus back home. Their programs are pretty pricey, but be advised, if you are serious about applying to grad school, everyone else prepares for the test in some way, shape or form. Ultimately it is up to you to decide whether you want to drop the money to take one of their prep classes. Depending on how you are situated, you might only need to pick up a book and study. However, if you are an extremely average test taker like me, you will probably find it worth the money (this goes for GRE, MCAT, GMAT, and LSAT). Essentially, what you are doing is paying to section out time once a week to take the test under testing conditions. Whereas you can only improve your general intelligence some, you can add substantial points by increasing your comfort and familiarity with the material covered. My recommendation is to find the nearest Kaplan test service near you. They have a presence on many campuses nationwide. Get on their information list, because they will email you free promotions. I have actually taken a practice LSAT with them twice already. It is an actual LSAT test; it is just an old retired one. They have promotions like those free practice tests and that MBA night all the time.

Let me give you their website.

During this last week I have just been meeting up with people over lunch just to chat and gain their perspective. There is a great organization in town called the Capital Area Club which takes people that are alumni of The Washington Center and your alma mater. Through the Capital Area Club (the University of Iowa chapter) I was able to get in contact with a fellow who is almost identical to me on paper. He interned through The Washington Center with the Department of Justice. He graduated from the University of Iowa with a major in Finance. Now he works at the Department of Justice, Tax Division and is currently trying to get into law school. It was fun meeting up with him. He was able to open up to me and tell me about his law school search. For someone being so similarly situated, the advice is good for what I will be facing in the next several years after I graduate. I have also been able to have lunch with some interns that are my age that are working in the Department of Justice for the Office of the Chief Financial Officer (OCFO). It is always fun talking to them because they are doing an internship that is relevant to my major (Finance). That way I can kind of get a perspective on my options for Plan B, should my law school dreams fade.

I also had lunch with a Budget Analyst from the OCFO and we got to talking about our religion. He invited me to his church. This kind of church is right up my alley because it emphasizes social justice. I am all about that. The congregation is, perhaps, 2/3 Hispanic (some citizens, some legal immigrants, and some undocumented), so a lot of the service was in Spanish. That is the second week I have found myself in a Spanish church service and I am really liking it. My Spanish is a little rusty, but I am brushing up again.

After the service we went to one of the congregant’s houses for a benefit lunch. Her husband had been picked up by immigration and deported. I sat there among their family friends and congregants witnessing their pain and feeling completely helpless knowing I would never be able to understand. It was probably the most humbling experience of my life. Exposure like this is absolutely invaluable to me because it reminds me of what I stand for and makes sure I am not numb to suffering and disregard for human dignity. I will also say, they fixed traditional Bolivian food and it was amazing! Yucca, lamb tongue, and rice.

This week I also began my informational interview project. At the suggestion of my supervising attorney, I am interviewing each of the civil rights attorneys in my Office to draw on their experience. I am trying to get advice on law school, my professional career, but most importantly, I am using their expertise to help me figure out what shape my passion of social justice can take once I am out of law school. The first attorney I interviewed worked as a social worker in Connecticut and then went into family law for a time. I was fascinated to hear what she had to say concerning the juvenile court systems, etc, because I am very interested in how I could bring my skills as an attorney into programs for juveniles.

While I am speaking about exploring my passions, let me talk to you a little bit about the civic engagement requirement for The Washington Center program. Let me preface this discussion by saying you should read through The Washington Center's website and make sure that you understand the expectations of the program. It is important that you keep yourself informed; that way there are no curveballs. It is all right there on their website laid out nice and concisely. Follow the link if you want, it takes you to the program components page.

The civic engagement aspect of your Washington Center experience may seem overwhelming, at first. However, this is only because it takes a little time to get things figured out. That’s why I want to offer some tips here so that you will be ahead of the game. Please don’t look at this requirement as a burden, just one more thing to do. It is honestly a major facet of a well-rounded experience in DC. This town is all about policy, power, and politics. With that policy side comes such an opportunity to get involved. Literally, you can pick any issue that matters to you and find a way to get plugged into it. The first place to start is to talk to your coworkers about what opportunities are available and see where they refer you. Second, get a hold of your congressman’s office if you are interested in politics and see where they can refer you. Let me give you some really good websites for some generalized volunteer opportunities in the area.

Volunteermatch is an excellent website bursting with opportunities. A lot of organizations use it along with Craigslist.org.

Another opportunity is Greater DC Cares. This is a great organization that brings together all kinds of volunteer opportunities in the area, so that you can pick and chose projects that fit into a tight schedule. Greater DC Cares throws volunteer fairs throughout the summer, fall, and spring that you can attend to find out about more sustained volunteer opportunities.

Now here is my plug for any of you Law and Criminal Justice folks out there that are interested in social justice. Check out this site:

http://socialjustice.georgetown.edu/service/programs/dc.html

It is not a bad idea to have some vague idea of how you want to get involved in before you come out here, because if you can explain your interest to the people you will associate with at work and at events, they will be able to point you in all kinds of great directions. In my case I knew I wanted close contact. I wanted to be able to work with people disadvantaged by society. Now that I have been in town for month this desire has taken to forms. I am signed up help overnight at a homeless shelter for a couple of weekends. Also, I finally was accepted to do client intake at a free legal clinic.

I will write more about the portfolio requirements as my deadlines approach. You have my promise. I will be mindful of any useful tips or tricks that I can pass along to you. For instance, the informational interview project that I am doing right now at work can technically fulfill one of the requirements.

Moving on, I want to discuss work a little bit before signing off. I am really fortunate in my placement because they operate under “flex scheduling.” Essentially, I can arrive any time I want between 6 a.m. and 9 a.m. After I arrive, the clock starts ticking until I have worked a full day. I am given real, substantive work (no busy work). It is really interesting stuff, too. What is very hard for me to get used to is that my opinion on that data that I am working with highly valued. I am actually asked to weigh in with my thoughts on certain matters. I guess I am just not used to that level of respect in the workplace.

Lastly, I want to leave you with this picture I took from our 17th story balcony of an incoming front. This thing was nasty. I am from Iowa, I know. I also took some footage of the underbelly of a tornadic shelf (I may have made up that word). There is some noticeable circular motion.

Getting plugged in.

I am finally starting to get plugged into things--finally getting the swing of things. This last week has been about shifting out of tourist mode and starting to think about how I want to develop professionally this summer. It all started when I sat down to fine tune my Learning Objectives Statement (LOS) for The Washington Center. Essentially, this statement sets goals for how I want to develop personally, professionally, civically and academically this summer. I have found it a very useful tool in examining what I want out of this summer and how I plan to accomplish it.

I had a great opportunity to sit down with my supervising attorney and go through my LOS. He offered some incredibly good suggestions on how to accomplish my goals. He recommended two things which I found particularly good. First, he recommended that I interview each of the attorneys in the Office about their profession so that I can draw from their experience as lawyers. Yes, this is one of the assignments for my portfolio this summer as well (to a certain extent). However, the implication of his suggestion is that I will be given the time and the support during my work hours to do this project. Also, everyone in the office seems very willing to participate. My idea is to shape these interviews into a little booklet that reflects on how they advise me. I want to take a picture of them working in their office and include that with a little bio, as well as the information and advice that they gave that was particularly good. It would be nice to give each of them a copy at the end of the summer as a little token of gratitude, as well.

The other thing that my supervising attorney recommended was keeping a little newspaper clippings book from the Washington Post on all of the articles that deal with things our office is working on. I just think that is an excellent way to stay actively informed about issues that the Office for Civil Rights is working on.

Another thing that was particularly fun was the Law and Criminal Justice (LCJ) program event this last Monday. We went to the courthouse and jail in Arlington, VA. First, we toured the jail. I found this fascinating, because it falls right in line with the project I am currently working on. A little background: The Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003 (PREA) authorized the Bureau of Justice Statistics (in the Department of Justice) to conduct the first comprehensive statistical survey of self-reported incidences of sexual assault in our nation’s correctional systems. PREA also established the Panel on Prison Rape Elimination to hold annual hearings based on what the BJS statistical survey indicates are the 2 correctional facilities with the lowest incidences of rape and the 3 with the highest. My office is working in conjunction with BJS and the PREA Panel to help inform Congress in its policy decision-making on this issue by offering quantitative and legal analysis. Is that a mouthful or what? I have only been here a few weeks and already I am abbreviating everything with acronyms and using power verbs and buzz words to make my audience think I actually know what I am talking about. Geez.

Anyway, I have had to do a lot of reading into prison policy, personnel training, inmate protection programs, prison administration, etc. So, it was fascinating to get to go through that jail, because it is a national model of a progressive jail that focuses on rehabilitation paired with correction. Literally, people come from all over the country to study it and its programs. I was very interested to hear how they treated high-risk and vulnerable incarcerated persons because the emphasis at the facility is on successive levels of privilege based on good merit. When they took us up to the protective custody and administrative segregation level, I had a million questions flying through my head, but did not have enough time to ask them. I really enjoyed the opportunity to tour the jail because it truly put into context what I have been working on over the last month.

If anyone is interested, the latest report by the BJS just came out. It is a comprehensive statistical break down of self-reported sexual assaults in local, county, and regional detention centers. This one is particularly interesting, because no such survey has ever been conducted on a national level. So the information is new and somewhat surprising. The hearings to be conducted by the PREA Panel concerning this report will likely be scheduled for September. Therefore, I probably will not get a chance to work with the data from this report, but an ample opportunity to help with preparations for the hearings. For instance, just yesterday I drafted a preliminary notice to the parties being summoned to the hearings. I also may get to participate a little bit in the discover process, which would be exciting.

As a mentioned above, we also got to go to the Arlington Courthouse. We sat in on the tail-end of the morning’s docket (just a few quick arraignments). Then we got to see “jury selection” for a DUI/OWI case. As a collegiate Mocker, that was very interesting for me because I got to observe the difference in the courtroom demeanor between the two attorneys. The person representing the Commonwealth of Virginia was a law clerk, very precise and intelligent. The defense attorney was a really showman. He asked his questions with the fact that a potential jury was his audience in mind. He was warm, friendly, and yet the way he asked the questions avoided prejudicing the potential jurors toward his client, even when he was trying to determine whether they might be prejudiced.

This weekend I went up to the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. That was really fun. I got to see the campus of the Catholic University of America. It is an absolutely gorgeous campus—with a darn good law school (might I add). The Shrine was absolutely stunning. I just spent the morning walking around and looking at the art. I happened to be in a little chapel down in the crypts when they closed it off and began a Spanish mass. So, I just took a seat in the pews and worshiped along. Luckily, the liturgy was printed out on a bulletin. My Spanish is really rusty, but I was able to follow along with the help of the bulletin. It was a little bit harder during the sermon, though. I actually think I am going to attend a few more times during the course of the summer because I really enjoyed it.

This weekend I went with some friends to National Mall late at night to see the monuments under the stars. I did my best to take pictures, but most of them did not come out.

The war monuments are impressive by day, but are a must see by night. The new WWII monument is incredible. I honestly think it will become a tourist tradition to have your picture taken by the pillar of your home state.

I have already seen two or three Facebook profiles pictures that support this hunch. If you come down next semester, you should make a point to visit the Mall late on a weekend. Just be careful around the Reflecting Pool because there are a lot of sleeping ducks and angry geese (and a minefield of you-know-what).

Also, this last weekend I attend a law school forum hosted by LSAC (those are the people who do the LSAT). There were about 180 law schools there. I picked up an entire backpack of information there. I also got a chance to talk to some of the law schools I am interested in about their programs. For a person like me whose interest lies in social justice, clinics and volunteer opportunity are huge. I also asked about research opportunities available at each school. It is important to differentiate between research requirements and opportunities, because the law school representative will want to discuss the requirements to differentiate their school in your mind.

I would highly recommend hitting one of these events up if you are in the area… they are very informative. There are sessions on financing law school, applying, etc. However, if you don’t plan to go for the whole day, obtain a list of the schools that will be there off of LSAC’s website and figure out ahead of time what schools you are really interested in talking to. Anyone can pick up a lot of information by just shoveling it into their bag. Use your time to talk to the school you are really interested in, otherwise you will get caught up a tables chatting with schools you have never even heard of. At the first law school fair that I went to at the University of Iowa, I was just starting my law school search. I had no idea which schools I was interested in. So I just started floating around talking to representatives. Before I knew it, my hour was up and I had learned nothing of any consequence. My advice if it is your first fair: go with what you know. If it is a school that you have heard of, go and talk to the rep. After doing that a couple of times, you will get an idea of what questions to ask. Then just pick up information at tables that look interesting, back off a few steps, just flip through the information and see if any thing catches your interest. If it does, chat. If not, scat. That is just my advice.

One last thing before I let you go. I have been able to get in contact with several University of Iowa/Washington Center alumni who are working in this area through an organization call the Capital Club (the UI Chapter, of course). I just had lunch the other day with an alumnus who actually works for the Department of Justice. We just walked over to Chinatown and went into a random Chinese restaurant and talked about life in Washington, working at the DOJ, our aspirations of law school, etc. I hope to do it again. A summer in DC just affords me an opportunity I would otherwise not get to talk to people that have already been where I want to go and have done what I want to do. It is an invaluable resource that I couldn’t figure out how to find back home. Now that I have some experience locating it here, hopefully I will be able to export that back to Iowa as I finish out my undergraduate experience.