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.