(Non?) Compos Mentis
On the fourteenth of May, 2018, I battled a maze of buses and trains and found myself standing on Wilson Avenue in downtown Arlington staring up at an office building. This building, home to the National Center for State Courts (among other things), will be a place where I grow and learn throughout the summer. The NCSC’s International Programs Division works with other organizations to promote access to justice in countries all over the world by empowering communities and engaging citizens. Here I’ll be assigned various projects, engage in discussions that will feed my conceptual framework of the rule of law and how it works, and experience the world of nonprofits first-hand. I will work on a diverse set of projects that will allow me to improve writing, researching, and program development skills. (And it has a revolving door, which, as a girl who was raised in middle-of-nowhere Minnesota, is pretty cool.)
With no time to waste, we jumped right into project assignments and work. I’ve looked at human rights and transnational crime issues in the Caribbean and written documents detailing the individual struggles of several countries and how they compare regionally.
Additionally, I’ve started on a harrowing tale of anti-terrorism in Bangladesh. Bangladesh sits between Burma and India on the Bay of Bengal and is only slightly smaller than Iowa. NCSC is writing a proposal in hopes of winning government funding for an anti-terrorism program there. The current government, who gained power in 2009, started combating terrorism and extremism with the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2009. The program will address terrorism financing, among other things. For now, I’m just doing background research on terrorism there and how this legislation (the ATA) has been implemented and what effect it has had on the ground.
Lastly, one of the interns before me started a project mapping the bylaws of the Supreme Council of the Judicial Power in Morocco, which I’m continuing to work on. This project is mostly editing and formatting for now. I really enjoy it because it gives me first-hand experience with how mapping works and I get to learn about the judiciary of Morocco.
The other inter, Emma, and I sometimes work on the same project and sometimes work separately, but we’re always just a few feet away. She’s there for coffee breaks, stretching, and panic attacks over whether law school grades have come out. It’s only the first week, which is an adjustment period and, honestly, a little overwhelming so it’s nice to have someone there who is in the same place.
Like, you know how, sometimes, we get attached to an inanimate object? As children, we cling dearly to blankets and toys. We grow up and cling to “lucky” items and jewelry and cell phones. For me, this week it’s my metro card. When I’m feeling anxious throughout the day I reach into my pocket to feel the warm edges of the plastic and reassure myself that I could go anywhere. When the imposter syndrome hits hard and I think “there’s been a mistake, I
Less than a minute later, with no one the wiser about my inner monologue, I return to work.