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.