Per
The penultimate week has come. Work is carrying on as usual, though now I have to be sensitive about which projects I accept because I have a limited number of days in which to accomplish them.
One project I do get to work on is the desk review for a project in Kosovo. Like many Rule of Law projects, this one concerns access to justice, particularly for vulnerable populations. I like this project because it is driven by research and gives me the opportunity to practice concisely summarizing an issue or argument. I read several documents that were quite lengthy and was told to boil them down to one or two useful paragraphs. It reminded me somewhat of writing case explanations for class or for a legal memo.
One thing about this internship is that we read a lot. I have read so much this summer that I feel like my ability to read quickly and understand something has drastically increased.
My head feels like it’s been stuffed full of knowledge. Any more and it’ll all come spilling out at the seams.
Emma and I have also made serious progress on our concept paper. This paper has given us an opportunity to try our hand at program development. We were given a “Notice of Funding Opportunity” (NOFO) and from that, we completed targeted research to ascertain the justice needs of Serbia. Once we had a better understanding of justice needs, we had a long discussion about what kind of project we thought was ideal. When you’re standing at the beginning of a project, staring a problem in the face, with a whole world of options ahead of you, it can be hard to get your bearings. It’s daunting. How could you ever know which programs are right? Which ones work best? And the research to answer such questions is insurmountable.
And then I remembered that we are literally surrounded by people who are experts in answering those questions. They know. And they can teach us how to know, too. In the end, we decided to design a project based on a bench book and a series of judicial training with a parallel running public awareness campaign.
I also got to do a renovation of NCSC’s Subcontract Agreement. To be honest, I loved this assignment. It has been incredibly tedious and detail oriented. I spent hours reformatting, checking, double checking and reorganizing clauses. It was like a puzzle. And I love puzzles. I love checking to see if the terms are in compliance with applicable federal regulations. I love checking it against a series of other contracts to make sure that all of the required clauses are present. Honestly, I think that this was my favorite project for the whole summer.
Is that too nerdy?
It’s weird to think that after next week I won’t come back here. I won’t make jokes with Marta about the heat or walk to Whole Foods for lunch with Payton. I feel like I’ve gotten close with my officemates here. I know that I have to go back and finish school but it will be sad to leave this place. I didn’t expect that.