Week 1: Arriving at NCSC
My first week at the National Center for State Courts, International Programs Division has already come to an end. When I first arrived at NCSC on Monday, I was anxious to find out what my summer would consist of, as this is my first "legal" job and my first full-time, 9-5 job. Everyone at the office could not have made my first week a better experience. There are 5 interns, including myself, that will be working at NCSC for the next ten weeks. After being introduced to everyone in the office, we had a meeting with our direct supervisor for the summer- Tim Hughes. He gave a great presentation that introduced what NCSC does, the history behind the organization, and what the rule of law is and how it will apply to our tasks for the summer.
One of the things I look forward to most about working at NCSC is that I get to work with several different people on many assignments ranging from program management to federal contracting. On my second day at NCSC, I met with Tim to discuss my personal objectives and what I hope to gain from this internship. I created a Professional Development Profile that stated these objectives and my area interests, such as human rights, counterterrorism, and anti-corruption. The interns then emailed these profiles out to the rest of the staff so they would have a better idea of what areas we are familiar with or have an interest. Shortly after, I was already approached by someone in the office who needed help with an advocacy reform brief on counterterrorism and money laundering in Bangladesh. I was so excited to get started on the project, and I have spent half the week editing, formatting, and summarizing the laws in the brief. Another project I got assigned was with the Caribbean team. So far, I have drafted a section on a subproject NCSC did in The Bahamas for a final report that will be going to the Department of State by the end of June. They implemented digital recording systems in the courtrooms because prior to this, the magistrate judges were hand writing everything. It has been so interesting learning about the judicial systems of other countries, and it has certainly given me a different perspective. It is easy to criticize our own judicial system because it certainly has many flaws and a lot of areas need to be reformed. However, this week has already shown me that there are a lot of aspects to the U.S. system that I took for granted, such as the easy access to technology in courtrooms.
By the end of the week, I had already completed four different assignments and have a lot more set for next week. Some of the assignments are short and can be finished within a couple days, and some are assigned to last over the entire internship period. Most of the contracting assignments will take all ten weeks. Right now, I am reading a contract NCSC has with Tunisia to compare it with a contract NCSC has with Serbia. The goal is to eventually created a standard form contract for software services. Lastly, the other interns and I met with Jeff Apperson, the Vice President of NCSC, to discuss a special project that we will work on over the next ten weeks. It is confidential, so you will just have to trust me when I say it is super cool. It has only been 5 days, and I already love working at NCSC, and I know this internship is going to broaden my knowledge in many different areas of the law and of the world.
Until next week!