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The day the Supreme Court handed down the ruling on President Obama’s Health Care law, the Office was a buzz of anticipa-tion and excitement- all eyes were eagerly glued to their computer screens waiting for the first newspaper lucky enough to get the drop on the exclusive news. The second the ruling was handed down and as all the interns gathered to pick apart the opinion of the Court, I could not think of a more perfect place to be interning than the District Attorney’s Office in Washington D.C.

Surrounded by a mix of law and undergraduate students from around the country and dedicated Assistance District Attorneys, I learned the ins and outs of the legal system- a profession I hope to pursue upon graduating from Skidmore. On the first day, I was placed in the Felony Major Crimes Division. I was given my own desk, my own computer, my own Identification card that showed I was not a threat to security and had miraculously passed the extensive Govern-ment paperwork test, my own personal email account within the Department of Justice, and a lovely care package from the supplies center in the basement. Irrespective of my limited legal education, from that day forth I was entrusted with a myriad of tasks. Adminis-tratively, I compiled evidence binders, transcribed 911 calls as well as police radio transmissions, and listened in on jail calls in search of incriminating evidence that could be used in trial. Interactively, which was my favorite part of the internship; I assisted various lawyers in the Felony Major Crimes Division on their trials.

The first lawyer I assisted was for a standard suppression of tangible evidence motion. I figured, since it was only my second day, that I would be spending the majority of the motion observing. Boy was I wrong. Mr. O’Rourke told me to sit right next to him at the counselor table and to take diligent notes during the direct and cross-examination. However, what excited me most was how, at the con-clusion of Mr. O’Rourke’s direct examination of the witness, he would turn and ask me if I had any questions I thought he had forgot-ten to mention. Whenever I did have a suggestion he would agree and subsequently turn to ask the witness. The second case I was involved in was a felony involving various assault charges. In preparation for the case I helped write a motion to admit a 911 call made at the time of the incident as evidence and during the trial I took notes for Mrs. Sahaf to use during subsequent lines of questioning. Surprisingly, at the conclusion of the trial, and following a favorable conviction, a press release was made by the United States District Attorney, Mr. Ronald Machen, thanking the detectives, paralegals, prosecutors and me! An apparently not so insignificant intern. The final case I assisted on was a felony charge for possession of and discharge of an illegal fire

-arm. During the course of the trial I composed transcripts that would be entered into evidence, helped categorize and label evidence (which involved holding an AK-47 and a shotgun), aided in jury selection, made sure evidence was ready for trial every day, and helped con-struct opening and closing arguments.

My experience this summer has furthered solidified my passion for the study of law and my desire to pursue a career in the criminal justice program. The enthusiasm that each district attorney had for their job (I do not believe I have ever met so many people concentrated in one office that claim to love their job, except in the Skidmore Government Department of course) and the amount of knowledge I gained from this internship provided me with the best possible segue into my graduate aspirations.

This summer, I worked as a Summer Acade-my Fellow at the Roosevelt Institute Campus Network, a progressive policy organiza-tion that helps develop stu-dent initiatives and impact projects around six key policy areas: Health Care, Equal Justice, Energy and the Envi-ronment, Education, Eco-nomic Development, and Defense and Diplomacy. Working with the Roosevelt Institute offered me the op-portunity to delve deeply into issues such as citizenship,

government reform, and democratic participation. I received funding for this internship through Career Services and the New World Foun-dation Internship Award Program.

My main responsibility as a Summer Fellow was to develop programming to collect data for the Campus Network’s newest initia-tive, a project titled “Government By and For Millennial America.” The goal of the project is to develop a document outlining what the millennial generation (those born between 1980 and 2000) identifies as the ideals of, and obstacles to, a model democratic government,