Week 7: Raise a Glass to Freedom
Happy 4th of July! This week was a short week with the holiday weekend. My boss kindly allowed the interns to take off the 4th and the 5th so I packed up a rental car and drove 12 hours to Illinois to see my family. Needless to say, it was a very exhausting weekend full of travel, but it was worth seeing my family. Before I left the nation's capitol, I spent the first half of the week working on various projects. Tim and I are still drafting the technical proposal for a project in Malaysia. We spent most of Wednesday editing and drafting the program goals, activities, and logic model for the project. It was a great exercise to see the program management side at NCSC.
Another project that I have been working on is a presentation the interns have to give in two weeks to the entire staff. Our presentation is going to focus on the Odebrecht case in Brazil and how corruption impacts the rule of law. Odebrecht is a large construction company in Brazil and is currently involved in a huge corruption scandal. The scandal centers around Odebrecht paying bribes to politicians and officials in exchange for contracts. We are all in the early stages of research, but it has definitely been an interesting case to study. This presentation will be a strong learning experience because it gives us the opportunity to study a current issue that has a legal impact on an international scale, while also connecting the issue to how it impacts the rule of law in general. Additionally, this will be my first experience giving such a large presentation, and I look forward to having the opportunity to practice my public speaking skills.
Because of these few projects, the week went by relatively fast. I spent the 4th of July with friends and family, and it was nice to recharge after these busy 7 weeks. I know spending the 4th in the nation's capitol might have been more exciting, but nothing compares to some much needed family time. Celebrating our nation on the 4th is always a fun holiday, but this year I had a bit more to reflect on because of everything I have learned at NCSC this summer. I now have more knowledge on the rule of law and what aspects of democracy strengthen the rule of law. I am very proud of the country I live in, but I also think it is important to criticize the negative aspects to continue to build a strong nation for everyone. Like I mentioned in my very first blog post, it is easy to take for granted the freedoms we have in this country. As I study and compare other countries that are working on strengthening their own rule of law, I think about how the U.S. system works. By no means do I think the U.S. has the "best" system, but there are strong aspects to our rule of law that allow for us to live in this free country. Studying other areas of the world where there is less accountability and transparency in the judiciary, or corruption has caused political interference in elections has allowed me to appreciate the U.S. more. Yet, working at NCSC has given me the opportunity to also have conversations on how we can better the U.S. system and not just focus on systems abroad. This past week, the interns met with the Vice President for a project, and we discussed how federal and state judiciaries within the U.S. can also work on improving its accountability and transparency. These conversations provide a great learning experience on analyzing the U.S. from a comparative law perspective.
Overall, it was a great week and a great 4th of July weekend. And the USA Women's Soccer Team winning the World Cup was the perfect way to end the celebratory weekend. Go USA and go women!!