My name is Elyse and I’m from central New Jersey, about an hour outside of New York City.  I go to St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia where I’m pursuing a major in International Relations along with minors in both Economics and Political Science.  This semester I’m taking a break from normal class work to come down to Washington and try to figure out exactly what I want to do with my life.  I’ve been toying with the idea of going to law school for a few years now, so I had wanted to try to find an internship with some type of law firm or a related organization so I would be able to know for sure if that’s exactly what I want to do once I graduate.

I first heard about the Washington Center my freshman year of college.  One of my introductory politics classes hosted a TWC representative who spoke to us about the internship program and all the benefits it could provide to undergraduate students like ourselves before we were forced to leave academic security bubble of college to dive head-first into the unknown territory that is the American job market.  I had originally wanted to go to college down in D.C., so the just the opportunity of being able to spend a semester down here attracted me to the program right away. 

I was abroad in Spain last fall semester, so I made sure to apply to The Washington Center’s program as early as I could.  I was accepted by the end of August, but I didn’t actually start interviewing for any internship until around the middle of October.  I had expressed a desire to intern for an organization that interacted with the law in some way, so I worked with my placement advisor to secure a few interviews and ultimately decided to accept a placement with a law firm called Sandler, Travis and Rosenberg, P.A.  Sandler, Travis and Rosenberg primarily specializes in international trade and customs issues.  I was really happy with my placement because I felt like it would provide a good opportunity to incorporate my college coursework with a career path that I might eventually choose to pursue.

I moved down to Washington about a week and a half ago.  This semester I’m living in the Residential and Academic Facility (or the RAF as it is affectionately called by its residents and TWC interns) with my friend Christy who attends SJU with me and two other girls named Lauren and Jenna.  I was really excited with my housing placement; I had really been hoping to be placed in the RAF not only because it is the TWC housing facility located within D.C. city limits, but also because most of the program’s classrooms and meeting rooms are right downstairs.  Our apartment is a lot nicer than I expected it to be.  We have two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a huge living room and a full kitchen, not to mention three balconies.  So far I’ve really liked living in this building – it feels like a dorm because everyone is an intern with the TWC program and so it’s fairly easy to make friends.

 Our room on move-in day, sad to say that wasn't even half of our stuff...

The living room in our apartment

After move-in day, we had two days of orientation with our individual programs.  I was originally placed with the Global Trade and Regional Integration Program, but it was merged with the Business and Management Program a few weeks ago. The first day I headed off to the Business and Management meeting, but I quickly realized that it wasn’t for me.  When my program was first switched, I figured that it would be a good learning experience for me to gain some exposure to business, but I felt that jumping into this program with no experience might be a little too much to handle.  I talked to one of the advisors and switched into the Law and Criminal Justice Program, which is definitely going to be a better fit for me and for my interests.

Despite the cold, our first weekend in D.C. was spent exploring.  I met up with a few people I had met from my building to walk around the National Mall, which is an open area downtown surrounded by museums and monuments.  I made it a point to find the building where I would be working so I would know exactly where to go the next Monday morning.  I didn’t realize it at first, but my internship’s office is actually located in the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, which is one of the largest federal office buildings in D.C. (second only to the Pentagon).

 The Washington Monument at dusk, definitely my favorite picture I've taken so far

 Side view of the Capitol Building

Hey, even the White House needs work done sometimes

My first week of work was mostly spent getting oriented to office life and the types of projects I’ll be working on this semester. On Tuesday I was sent to Capitol Hill to summarize a Ways and Means Committee (one of the committees of the House of Representatives) hearing on free trade agreements.  Most of my time in the office has been spent researching different things for my supervisor, like information on free trade agreements, international agencies of other countries, and more recently, new FDA guidelines.  Although working at a real job is a lot different from the life of a normal college student, I really like it so far.  It’s been interesting to see how things that I have studied in my classes at school play out in real-life professional situations.  Now that we're all settled in I'm just making it a point to learn as much as I can about DC and what life is like in the working world.