I get to be where it's all happening. I love that when I get to go to work I get
to walk past you know the Supreme Court, the capital buildings, the house office
buildings, the Senate office buildings. I just feel completely in the middle of it.
It pushes these students to you know dream bigger and reach higher than I
think they would have if they hadn't done this program in the past. It's hard
to get an internship in DC independently it's really really difficult, so the fact
that Samford has an avenue that makes it so much easier for students is
amazing. We've had students intern with the Department of Justice, we had
students intern in Supreme Court, we had students intern as small legal firms
actually right up the street in our Uline Center, and so it really depends on
what the student is interested in, what kind of environment they are and they are
guaranteed to get that personal professional lives experience from their
supervisors, to their LEAD instructors as well as their evening course instructors
as well. This is a huge jumping off point I'd say for me and my career and
figuring out what it is that I want to do next, and knowing that my goals aren't
that far off I've been meeting people who are my shoes not that long ago and
now they're here doing what I want to do. If you're feeling on the fence about
something or if you don't know what to do or you don't know which career path
to go in, I think that this program and also just working and living in DC in
general it's a great way to solidify your thoughts about future.
The people that you meet through internships in DC are just so important
to your career, um I actually have a standing job opportunity because of my
internship to work as a resettlement officer in Jordan, so really this opens
up all kinds of doors from people that you never would have met otherwise. It's
a great addition to my resume and I already have so many people who are
willing to write me recommendations and so many doors that have been opened to
me through networking and things, and I mean my whole career path has changed
being here so. I think it shows a lot of initiative and the fact that you can
live in a city taking professional development classes and sort of
developing yourself professionally and personally, I think is really marketable.
It looks prestigious and I think it looks competitive you know, if I go on
campus and I'm doing some recruiting I'll say well you can always intern with
a local bank or you can actually you know intern at the Federal Reserve, and I
think one carries a lot more weight because you're working with more
stakeholders. There's local federal and state versus just the local level. So
life here is not your typical DC apartment. Students share a suite with
other TWC interns they have in some cases a nice balcony area, there is a gym,
there's a student computer lab and there is a dedicated student services team
that is available to them 24 hours a day. We live there we go to school there
there is office space our LEAD instructors are either there or right
here which is like a two minute walk, so for me it's been super convenient, you're
working all day you're tired and you just walk downstairs to go to class.
Well my roommate is from Italy so that's been a really cool learning experience
and one of the people who lives across the hall for me is from England,
so very culturally different I've never really used public transportation before
coming here and I ride the Metro at least twice a day, it's just it's a
really cool way to experience the world and kind of mature a little bit and I
definitely feel like I have matured and grown up a little bit being here.
Students don't know until they try something so the opportunity to try
something brand new test it out and figure out okay this is for me or it's
not for me and have that transformation it really is priceless. I think they'll
look back on this experience and say this was the point where I was like I
want to do this it confirmed what I wanted to do, it made me more excited to
do it, I know it'll be hard work but it'll be worth it because I think
agencies like the Department of Education and just other organizations
in DC in general, I think they do really good work and I would love to be a part
of that.