It's been fun DC

Along with Jenny, I had my last day of work this week.  I will truly miss NOW.  I had a wonderful experience with wonderful people.  Like Helen, I stayed on a few extra weeks so I was the only intern, which meant I got to do even more around the office.  I really could see myself there but not for awhile at least.

Being in DC truly has changed my views on quite a few things.  Not sure if that is a good thing or not, but I definitely have a better sense of my views on things.  I look forward to carrying these new discoveries back with me to Illinois.  Hopefully, I can put them to good use.

I will deeply miss DC.  I have had a great time and really don't want to go.  I am still waiting to hear back from the American Association of University Women about a job as the Illinois campus organizer.  If I do not get this position, I am not sure what I will be doing back in Illinois.  I may reach other to my local officials.

Hope everyone is enjoying the rest of May!

My Last Day

Hi all,
Today is the last day of my internship and so far it has been splendid. I woke up this morning and got coffee at Bourbon, a local coffee shop in Foggy Bottom, with a friend. Then picked up some breakfast at a Georgetown Cafe I've been meaning to try all semester and strolled into work 10 minutes early (pretty big deal for me :)).

Yesterday there was a goodbye party for me and another intern. We had a pizza lunch where everyone sat around together and shared very interesting college stories :). Today is laid back, there is a lot to do but not in a stressful way. I'm enjoying my last bit of time seeing and hanging out with my co-workers, who have really treated me great since I've been here.

Reflecting on my internship, while it hasn't been exactly what I expected and there have been many a dull days, overall I am grateful for the people I was able to work with and the international government officials I was able to meet and spend time with. I feel like I made a contribution to the ILI and that they truly appreciated me, so no regrets.

I am currently still in the process of looking for a summer internship (preferably paid as my stipend is running low) but anything will do. I would really like to stay in DC. I've made good friends and have started to like it a lot here. Also, some people are going to be joining me for the summer!!!! (if i stay that is). So if you know of anything please send it my way, thanks.

-jenny

May Already?!

Hey all,

Hope everyone is doing great! I can't believe that it's already May. How time flies!

I'm still loving my work at the Sierra Club. I think in an earlier blog I mentioned that I was working on designing a new Sierra Club campaign called Campuses Beyond Oil. We've been putting a tremendous amount of work in to our campaign plan and it's been an amazing learning experience. Yesterday, we presented our plan to the team and will be spending the rest of the week figuring out the kinks. It's really exciting to be a part of this campaign at the design level and I can't wait to see the success!

Next month I will move back to half time at the Sierra Club and work the other half of the time in Congresswoman Betty Sutton's office. I'm excited to get the opportunity to work in a Congresswoman's office and see the juxtaposition of non-profit work to government work. Hopefully I'll be able to see which one suits me better.

Can't believe all of our friends will be graduating this weekend!

-Marla 

Happy 2 Days after Cinco De Mayo?! haha

Hey!!

Soo last week was pretty eventful! Even though this is unrelated to my internship, on Wednesday I went to the Council on Global Affairs' event with Madaleine Albright, former secretary of state. That woman is hilarious and really inspiring. I was being pretty lazy at first and didn't want to go, but I'm glad that I decided to go. Our office held one of its first workshops, which was hosted by me! I really hate public speaking and was not looking forward to it, but most of the people who attended were clients that I had previously worked with, so I was a lot more comfortable than I expected to be. Overall, it was a success and our clients had great dialogue and feed back. I have also been catching the train the past few days; traffic has been TERRIBLE because of some on-going construction. I was pretty afraid to catch the train alone, but it's not that bad after all. Plus, I keep my mase, so I should be ok (haha). 

Last week was formally my last week in the office, but I decided to stay until this Thursday. I head back to Champaign on Friday to graduate (finally)!!!!! The office is pretty empty because we are transitioning into the summer term and the new interns/volunteers have not started yet, so basically there a only a few volunteers in the office because the official end date was last Friday. The clients have been really frustrated with this, but they understand that we are students; it's just kind of awkward explaining to the clients who come in on a weekly basis that we won't be able to schedule them appointments until June! :/

On a lighter note, I saw "The Avengers" this weekend- loved it! 


Talk to you guys soon, and enjoy the duration of your internships!

Lonely intern!

Hello everyone! I haven't been on for a while, and I deleted a lot of info from my past blogs because I got a scare again. My internship officially ended May 4th, last Friday, but I extended until the 18th. Interning part time. Which is more like full time. The office is empty of interns, and I AM LONELY. But the last couple of weeks were amazing, I met some incredible people, and I'll miss the interns like crazy. I'm already missing them! That's all I have to share for now, hope all's well with the rest of you!

Manhunt!!

Hi All!!

One of my big projects for this semester was research and working on my boss's new book MANHUNT!

Check him out on the Daily Show! He was on a few days ago

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-may-3-2012/peter-bergen

Cheers,

_Eric

CLP Alum

This past weekend Marla and I had the opportunity to meet up with two past CLP alums, Samantha and Allison.  They were from the 08 class so they were the second CLP class.  It was interesting to see what has changed since their class and what is still the same.  They also gave us advice for the thesis.  Don't worry we will share.  It was also interesting to hear what they have been doing since CLP.  Samantha actually worked in my town for awhile before moving out to DC.  She now works for Congresswoman Janice Hahn, and Allison works for the DC Council.  I also found out that I have been corresponding with a CLP alum the whole semester and had no idea.  A past alum also worked for NOW and now serves as the president of Chicago NOW.  One of my job is to keep track of our chapters so I correspond quite frequently with presidents.  What a small world!

CLP may not be the biggest grad program out there, but we do have a lot of great alums who really care about us and our success.

Hope everyone had a great Cinco de Mayo!

Now for THIS Week’s Post...

This week was a very eventful one for me, which is nice because it is my final week here at Niagara.  On Tuesday I went down to Springfield for the Niagara Foundations annual Intercultural Reception.  We set up a bunch of cool Turkish pottery, there was a Turkish band playing, and a guy who would write your name in Turkish script (this was incredible, I got one for everyone in my family haha).  After some mingling with members of the Illinois General Assembly, there was food served in Jesse White’s office, which is ridiculously huge by the way.  After the food, there was a brief presentation of awards to various people, and Speaker of the House, Michael Madigan was the emcee.  I was able to talk to him for a few minutes and we shared a few stories about our individual trips to Turkey.  Then we had to pack everything we brought back into a rental van and drive home to Chicago.  I was given yesterday off since we got home around 1:30 AM that night, so I was able to do so much needed LSAT practice.  I’m really looking forward to get this thing over with.  Anyone else taking it June 11th?

Today, the Consul General of Israel is coming in to speak about current events in Israel, which I think will be very interesting with heightening tensions with Iran.  I’ll let you guys know how this event today goes in my next post.

P.S. - I just ate a chocolate donut, and it was delicious.

- Joey

Last Week’s Post

Hey Guys,

I am using the post for last week since I forgot to post, and this week’s will come immediately after (I know you’re pretty excited about that).  So last week Lori Healey, the Director of the NATO hosting committee stopped by the office for one of Niagara’s Morning Conversations.  These days are especially brutal because I have to be at work by 7 AM, which means I’m waking up at around 4:45 AM.  Anyway, it was nuts when she got here, and cameras from ABC, NBC, and Fox were here along with multiple newspapers.  Her presentation was pretty basic and short, and she was in and out of the office pretty quickly.  She address security issues, traffic control, etc. surrounding the upcoming NATO Summit in Chicago.  I did get to interview her once she was done speaking though, which was pretty cool.  Other than that, the week was pretty uneventful except for my continued efforts on the Abrahamic Tent Initiative, which I told you guys about in one of my previous posts.  Hope all is well! See you in a few months!