Me in front of the White House
During the spring semester of my sophomore year, a representative from The Washington Center (TWC) for Internships and Academic Seminars visited Keystone College. I was interested and decided to research the program online and become familiar with it as much as possible. I discovered that The Washington Center is a program based in Washington D.C. that took students from various colleges and universities around the world. First you had to apply to The Washington Center, filling out an application, writing an Internship Request Statement, an Issues Essay, and providing a current resume, not to mention two recommendations from professors. The program sounded amazing; a whole semester living in Washington D.C. and working under prestigious men and women was an experience unlike any other. It felt like a far fetched idea, and one that may take a lot of work, but honestly what did I have to lose? So I took the chance, running around campus the beginning of my junior year at Keystone College to collect all the possible information I could and getting my paperwork in order. The Career Development Center helped a tremendous deal during this process! Soon I received a letter in the mail congratulating me on my acceptance to The Washington Center. I contacted my TWC advisor, Sarah, who took her time out to ask detailed questions on where I would like to intern. For the next two months I had numerous phone interviews with private law firms, the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the National Criminal Justice Association, Georgetown Law School Criminal Law Clinic, and the Public Defender’s Office of the District of Columbia and Montgomery County. I was accepted to a few internship programs such as the Georgetown Criminal Law Clinic and a few private law firms, but ultimately decided to accept the placement with the Public Defender’s Office of Montgomery County.
In the middle of January I moved into my apartment in Bethesda, Maryland. I was placed with three roommates in a two bedroom apartment with a balcony, dining room, living room, kitchen, and laundry room. My roommates were from New Jersey, Missouri, and South Dakota. Additionally, I met various people within The Washington Center from countries such as Mexico, Puerto Rico, England, and Brazil. Also, I met a diverse group of students at my internship site from Massachusetts, Alaska, Tennessee, and Colorado.
The Washington Center had a few requirements that you had to follow during the semester. First, you must work 35 hours a week at your internship site. However, if you had a problem with where you were placed, your TWC advisor would not hesitate to move you to another site. Second, the program entails your attendance at Presidential Lecture Series, Congressional Speaker Series, or Embassy visits that took place every Monday morning. Depending on your group’s schedule, each Monday was a different adventure around Washington. You may think that this is a lot of work, but these lecture series and visits were the most exciting part of the internship! A majority of my Monday mornings consisted of taking the metro to John Hopkins University to attend Presidential and Congressional series. This was where I listened to many prestigious men and women such as a Virginia State Police Officer from the Canine Unit talk about his job and even gave a presentation with his dog Cody; had a group discussion with John Miller who was previously a Dateline NBC News host and currently is the Assistant Director of the F.B.I. Homeland Security Department; sat in on a panel lecture that included the CEO’s of major companies such as General Motors, Verizon Wireless, and President of the National Public Radio; met a super delegate from Michigan, and finally I attended a lecture given by Dr. Lawrence Korb. When my program was not involved in lecture series, we spent our Monday mornings taking tours which included the Pentagon, the Arlington Court House, the Supreme Court, the Embassy of Switzerland, and finally the White House. Third, you must take a three credit course during the semester. I took a political science class at Marymount University in Arlington, Virginia that was held on Monday nights. Everyone in the program is different; depending on which class you choose and your internship schedule, TWC situated you in a certain university on a certain day. I met some students who were taking classes at John Hopkins University. Finally, the program requires that you complete at least one civic engagement project. In essence, the civic engagement project is community service. It was your obligation to find a project to work on and commit to during your semester in Washington D.C. I helped campaign for Hillary Clinton out of her office in Arlington, Virginia. Campaigning for Hillary allowed me to participate in the set up of a speech she gave in March at the Daughters of the American Revolution Building. I also participated in the American Council of Life Insurers (ACLI) Capital Challenge 5K Race. The ACLI race was essentially a fundraiser for the Special Olympics in which senators, Congressmen and women, and even Adrien Fenty, the mayor of Washington D.C., raced throughout Anacostia Park. I helped by arriving to the park at 5 o’clock in the morning to set up water stands and hand out numbers to the racers. I left by 10 o’clock in the morning and was able to take the metro to work.
“Backstage” picture I took after a Hillary Clinton campaign speech I helped set up for in D.C.
My internship consisted of myself and two other interns working under four separate attorneys, including our supervisor Paul DeWolfe. Within the office there were a total of 40 attorneys, 12 social workers, approximately six law clerks, and 9 interns. Our job duties consisted of organizing discovery, taking client and witness statements, traveling to crime scenes to take pictures, analyzing crime scene paperwork, working within the Montgomery County Crime Scene office, visiting clients in a maximum security prison located outside of Washington D.C., participating in plea agreements and trials to take notes for the attorneys, hand delivered paperwork to several judges in their chambers, and used different databases to obtain previous convictions of clients and witnesses. I worked every day in the Montgomery County Courthouse in Rockville, Maryland. This is where the trials of Lee Boyd Malvo and John Allen Muhammad (The D.C. Snipers) took place.
The courthouse where I worked.
At the end of my adventure in Washington D.C., I was disappointed to leave, but able to walk away with great knowledge, experience, and stories. I would advise this program to anyone who is outgoing and willing to leave the sanctuary of our small campus and drop into a big city alongside countless students from around the world. I made friends I will always remember and still keep in touch with, realized what I career path I want to pursue, and improved my network and networking skills for the future.
Me in the office of an attorney I assisted.�