Week 10: Wrapping Up the Rule of Law
I cannot believe my internship at NCSC is officially over. This week was packed with finishing up last minute assignments and presenting our final project to the staff. On Monday, we attended a presentation given by one of the Senior Program Managers. The presentation was an overview of an NCSC project in Tunisia. The month-long program focused on accountability and anti-corruption, which both can be improved by strengthening the courts. For example, NCSC provided assistance in improving court administration in eight pilot courtrooms. Additionally, NCSC is helping courts shift from using a paper system to using more technology, as well as implementing a new case management system. NCSC also helps the Tunisian courts prepare for these transitions by providing trainings. Overall, it was a great presentation, and it was interesting to learn about another NCSC program that illustrates their mission by improving the rule of law abroad.
Aside from closing out various assignments, many of NCSC's staff and the interns went to a Nationals baseball game. I am grateful to NCSC for arranging the outing, and it was a nice way to bond with some of the staff and my fellow interns before leaving. And the Nationals won the game!
Finally, the week ended with our presentation. As I mentioned in a previous blog, our presentation was over the Odebrecht scandal. When I first started this internship 10 weeks ago, I told Tim I would be interested in anti-corruption assignments because I wanted to vary the work I was doing. After working on a few assignments that focused on anti-corruption projects NCSC is implementing abroad, learning about the FCPA, and applying these concepts to our presentation, I have realized I would like to focus my career in this field. In particular, I am now looking at white collar and government investigations as a practice area, and I would not have recognized this interest if it were not for the variety of projects I worked on this summer. I am excited to see what the future holds, but leaving NCSC was bitter sweet. I am so grateful for the opportunities NCSC provided me. I will miss everyone in the office! The hardest part about moving on from this internship is leaving behind the incredible relationships I have built over these ten weeks. I hope to keep in touch with everyone, and I especially cannot wait to hear about all the accomplishments my fellow interns will achieve as they continue their own career paths. Thanks for reading my blog, and I hope you enjoyed reading about the work I did this summer as much as I did doing it!