Workshop

On 2 November 2012, I participated in an info session on the law school application process. I count this as a career workshop since my goal is to go to Law School and become a lawyer.

Since I have no family members that are lawyers or went to law school I found this particular event incredibly eye opening and instructive. I would have never realized how incredibly difficult it would be for me to apply and choose the proper law school since so many offer many different things.

The process of the entire LSAC application completed made me incredibly confused but in the end I left feeling much more prepared and excited to begin the process. I'm not sure I would have been able to do the process without some outside assistance or at least understand what exactly I was supposed to do.

I still have a few semesters before I have to begin the process as I have yet to still take the LSAT but overall it helped me understand the type of scores I will be needing in order to get into the Law schools I'd like to go to. This particular event was by far the most influential for me and assisted me in preparing myself to succeed in the process.

Interviewing and Professional Dress

On October 3rd, I took part in the webinar called Interviewing & Professional Dress. I had never participated in an webinar and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

It touched base on the typical advise that is given for an interview such as:

Answering Questions
Different types of interviews [style v. group]
How to Dress
New skills today for interviewing
Preparation for impressing

I was solidified in some aspects I already knew and I learned about some new things that I had not realized such as new skills in today's society. The webinar did a great job explaining each of the topics and made me much more interested in involving myself in career workshops at ASU. Had it not been for this assignment I am not sure I would have ever discovered how helpful ASU was with assisting it's students in enhancing their chances at future careers.

One on Ones

The final week of my internship was the most difficult. I was ready to return home to my friends and family in AZ but in the same respect I had gotten used to routine and the way of life in the city.

My internship allowed me to meet with both my Supervisor and the Assistant Director on my work throughout my internship. Overall I learned that for never having had any experience directly with policy work, that I was able to learn as I wrote and did an overall good job. I was able to look at areas of improvement throughout my time and was able to see that I was very innovative in my persuasive writing to get approval by attorneys for action based upon their clients.

It made me much more confident in my area of career interest and helped me notice areas in which I could improve. I would highly encourage that you ask your supervisor for feedback. In many cases you end up learning that what you're involved in is really the area for you. On top of this, I would highly encourage participating in an internship too. I learned so much from my time at OFAC and it has solidified my decision to return to DC next summer and involve myself more in government whether at the Treasury or some other area of government work. 

Terrorism and Financial Intelligence

The one aspect I enjoyed about my internship was the it opened my eyes to what the Treasury Department did and involved itself in. Perhaps I was the only person but I never realized how involved they were within the Terrorism field.

It's because of my internship that I've come back much more interested in Foreign Policy and Intelligence. From my countless lunches with a wide array of other interns I learned how involved the Treasury Department is involved in the field.

Terrorism and Financial Intelligence:

Marshals the Department’s intelligence and enforcement functions to safeguard the financial system against illicit use and combat rogue nations, terrorist facilitators, weapons of mass destruction proliferators, money launderers, drug kingpins and other national security threats.

·      Office of Intelligence and Analysis (OIA) – member of the U.S. Intelligence community; responsible for receipt, analysis, collation and dissemination of foreign intelligence and counterintelligence information related to operation and responsibilities of Treasury (economic, political and security issues.)

·      Office of Terrorism and Financial Crimes (TFFC) – develops strategies to deploy the full range of financial authorities to combat money laundering, terrorist financing, etc., domestically and abroad.

·      Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) – enforces economic and trade sanctions based on US foreign policy and national security goals against targeted foreign countries, terrorists, international narcotics traffickers, and those engaged in proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

Some of my friends that are still working there are involved with information on narcotic traffickers and are involved with conducting research on banks in the US to ensure that they are not knowingly or unknowingly dealing with a Terrorist group. This involves a lot of research and behind the scenes work. Overall working there has inspired a new focus and interest in my studies.

Research

I've always been known to be an overachiever at times so when I realized that my internship would not involve any outside research I was both ecstatic and slightly disappointed. I figured that with the type of people that were surrounding me, I could be of great assistance to them and at the same time come out improving my abilities.

I decided to involve myself a bit more and during our meet the faculty brunch I decided to touch base with some people that worked in Licensing and offer my assistance. One particular person allowed me to gather some information for them. I'm not at liberty to discuss what they were collecting research for but it was by far one of my most interesting weeks. On top of finishing my cases I was able to do some research on different countries and their economic levels.

The type of information and the type of people located at the Treasury are incredibly amazing. I learned a great deal of new ways to adequately conduct research and I learned how to analyze it in a different manner than what I thought. Ultimately the amount of research that I collected I will not know how the final product will look since it will only stay within the Treasury, but I'd like to think that whatever I contributed will be put to good use and that I made a difference in some manner.

Secret Service & The Mysterious Package

Work became pretty routine within a couple of weeks of beginning so naturally anything out of the ordinary is incredibly detectable within seconds. The amount of security at the OFAC building is incredibly intense regardless of the fact it itself is of high importance but the fact that it is right near the White House creates a bigger reason for there to be security.

One particular morning while we were working on some projects, we all received e-mails that we were not to leave the building due to a mysterious package that was left in the park near the White House. I'm not sure if it was naive of me or rather ignorance in the fact that I just received the e-mail and went on with my day as if nothing was wrong. After all.... we were in a very safe building.

Looking back on that thought process, I completed a lot of the necessary work that was given to me but I realized not a single person let it phase them either. To work in a place that close to the White House and let along the type of work that they do, it must be something that they understand and are accustomed to. My thought process was that if it were that big of a threat they would put in effect the proper procedure to secure the building and move us.

It made me think back to how that must have been on September 11, 2001. I can't imagine how incredibly scary and difficult working so close to the White House and the Capitol could have been.

Treasury and the 4th of July

There are many pros and cons to working in a government agency and during a holiday.

Firstly it meant the 4th of July was off and I got lucky and my supervisor gave me that 4th and the 5th off unlike most of the other interns that were with me in D.C. in Capital Scholars. That was the exciting part, the not so exciting portion was that I had to finish a large amount of cases in order to enjoy this luxury.

From the Monday morning I stepped into work the intern and I that shared the office kept receiving a new case about every thirty minutes. If there was any time to be grateful for being able to multi-task and get work done in an efficient manner it was then. The process is interesting. My supervisor sends us cases through the online software and it is our responsibility to get through as many cases as possible. In many cases it is our responsibility to print out the work, analyze and make comments and then upload our new documents to send back to her. What's not mentioned is that in most cases the specific case can be up to 10 pages long and involve over five types of documents that are supplemental.

Once the documents are received by our supervisor she must look over them and sometimes she either asks us to edit a few things or she asks us to send it on to her supervisor to finalize the case. Leading up to the 4th of July, I had never hated a 9-5 job quite as much as that particular day. I would go to get lunch in the cafeteria and bring it back and work the entire time. When it was finally the 4th of July, I thoroughly enjoyed my break.

Why I like D.C.

My favorite part about being in Washington, D.C. has to be the scenery. Although the humidity is incredibly difficult to initially get used to, I will find any excuse to be outside and enjoy the city.

I have kayaked in the Potomac, ran to all the memorials, traveled to Virginia, taken a lunch cruise, rode a bike to Maryland and just walked all over the city. Every adventure and new experience has been an amazing event.

Each day after I return from work I grab a bite to eat, change out and relax for a few minutes and weather permitting I go out for a run. I try and change my route and distance each time to be able to explore and see new things. The best part about being in D.C., is that everyone is outside and running/jogging/walking. I met so many nice and interesting people on my runs and there was always a smile on their face.

My favorite moments would be when I had the energy to go on morning runs. For a city that truly never sleeps it was by far the most exciting and interesting time of the day to run. To see the sun peak up and see the city awake is something that only few can really learn to appreciate. Those moments and the scenic pictures in my mind will always be with me.

The best thing to do I learned is to go to the Memorial sites late night early morning. There was one night a group of us did just that. In many cases the memorial sites are packed with tourists and impossible to really appreciate but going at this hour was amazing as hardly any people were around. The lights that are set up at each site are also incredibly amazing to just sit back and appreciate. The only downside or suggestion I would make... bring bugspray. You also get to enjoy all the fireflies that are out late at night.

Relations in the Government

In Political Science, on the news, in the newspaper and online you hear about the intergovernmental relations and how they all must work together for a common goal.

I had a unique opportunity through Capital Scholars to go to the National Defense University to do a simulation regarding all head of the state and all of the government agencies and the office of the President of the United States. It is much more difficult than what people on the outside seem to think. Each agency and group has a specific goal and intention in mind when making a decision and each of them is different from the other. It is impossible for everyone to come to a consensus on what decision to make because it will affect every facet of the decision in different ways.

While I was at the Treasury, we had to deal with a lot of agency cohesion. In many cases though it was mostly negative and impossible to do. We had to deal with the State Department a lot and what they were more focused on in regards to a certain issue was not necessarily our concern and vice-versa. It made it difficult to make a decision on something that was time sensitive. When I arrived at my internship, there was a case given to me that they had been working on for at least a year but because it had to involve the State Department it involved a lot of people at different levels. 

I would have been very frustrated with the time response had I not had the opportunity to understand why and how it was so difficult to make a decision in regards to different agencies. 

Meetings

So part of my internship requires me to sit in on weekly meetings. It's called brown bag lunch meetings and falls on Fridays when they encourage us to bring in sack lunches. It is a very cool and interesting experience because not only does it involve the interns but the Assistant Director of Licensing and everyone else on the floor meets and discusses a wide variety of subject matters.

They're typically Fridays to give many people a break from their work and interact with others. The one aspect I really enjoyed about OFAC is that everyone is very friendly and involved. The Treasury is working through a new system on their computers so most of the Fridays incorporated conversation regarding how our experience with the new software was. I really enjoyed my internship because they made it a point to ask the interns how their experience was and what we would like to work more on.

On top of those Friday sack lunch meetings every once a month we met with the Director of Licensing and every other high ranking official and were able to sit in on the meetings. I thought that this involvement was very rare in a government agency but I truly enjoyed the opportunity it gave us interns. It was the one time where one second I would be taking notes for my supervisor and then the Director would say that we were going to cover a secret topic and all notebooks would disappear.

The best part of the meetings had to be that they involved the interns in every way possible.

Certificates

The coolest thing about working at the Treasury Department is that I'm required to receive training and understand security type of processes that the Department uses.

Throughout my time at OFAC, I was required to take at least 5 different tests throughout my internship.  Now don't get me wrong, some of those were down right boring and time consuming but overall it was very interesting to go through. Some of the classes were in person and the others were online and required me to take online tests shortly after going through the lecture.

In the end I left with three certificates to my name in the following:
Intelligence Community Information Systems Security
Culture of Privacy Awareness
Classified Information Debriefing

As with most government jobs, there were a deep set of protocols that we were required to know and understand. Now much of what I took away in regards to security and training happened as I was doing work and talking to my supervisor and the coworkers around me. 

(Future) Careers intertwined

One aspect of my internship that I absolutely loved more than anything was that not only did I have the opportunity to do some very important work for a government internship but I was able to do that work and connect with lawyers across the United States.

Many of the clients that we dealt with in OFAC were represented by attorneys and most of my days required for me to call and and discuss areas of the cases with them. It was by far the most stressful but most eye opening experience I could have had the opportunity to be a part of. I had a new perspective to government work and with lawyers from across the country.

The most interesting thing for me would be that the attorneys or their paralegals had absolutely no idea I was just and intern, which made me feel that much more important. It was necessary for us to make sure that either the people that had sent in license requests were either represented or explicitly stated that they were representing themselves. On top of having to call attorneys we also had to come in contact with the actual clients.

The portion in which contacting the clients was always the most difficult. The clients we dealt with were in most cases immigrants and could not speak English too well. This instilled in me a great deal more patience and much more understanding for a different culture. Language barriers were by far the hardest portion of the internship.

Overall my experience and day to day duties made for an interesting outlook. I have always known that I was either going to work in government or become a lawyer, so to be able to interact and be a part of both at the age of 20 was exciting. It definitely did not make my decision as to what I really wanted to pursue any easier though.

Advice for DC

So for one of my random posts I decided to write about a few tips to have before coming to DC...

#1: Everything goes down at happy hour, therefore, be 21 or over before working in DC
Worst part about my internship is that I'm 20..... while most of my fellow interns are 21 or older... and all the mixers and parties happen after work. So when they invite me... I have to be that person that says I can go but can't drink or go out with them late at night to the clubs and bars.

#2: If you're not a morning person, make coffee your best friend
Fortunately for me... getting up early for the NROTC made me accustomed to waking up early and going to CrossFit every morning before work made my morning tolerable. I can't say the same for my suitemates or coworkers though. The whole saying that Starbucks is on every corner.... is most definitely true in DC. I never was an avid Starbucks drinker but something about DC has made my morning involve Starbucks... because quite literally EVERYONE has one in hand. The whole 9 - 5 job is also a new aspect to me. I now have much more respect for my parent's and what they had to deal with while my sister and I were growing up and them being absolutely exhausted after a day at work.

Role Models

I had a great opportunity to have lunch with my supervisor last week and I made it a point to interview her myself for my own personal understanding of her background and how she reached the job that she holds today. Out of everything we had spoken about her biggest takeaway was that connections and communication are the most important things to have. Jeanette, my supervisor, was a Capital Scholar such as myself and was in the first group of students to intern in DC. When I interviewed her she spoke of her first internship in DC on the Hill and she had told me that from then on she knew she would one day end up in DC. From Capital Scholars she met her now husband that was working on the Hill when she was and her best friend that helped her end up in DC and gave her word about an opening in Treasury. In staying in contact with these people she was able to creating relationships in DC and attain her job. When I had asked her how she looked at resumes and how she had decided upon me for the position she told me that just in knowing who was a Capital Scholar that it helped narrow down the choice. That she then looked at the area of study but the most important thing was how I had presented myself on the phone interview and the enthusiasm for the position. From my conversation with her and how she reached the Treasury I have realized that she has become not only my supervisor but one of my future mentors that has offered me a chance to exceed even when I return back to Arizona. We spoke about my opportunities back at Treasury next summer if I so chose and that I also had the opportunity to return to DC and work for Treasury after I graduated from ASU.

On top of having a great supervisor I feel privileged to have my fellow intern that shares my office as a type of mentor as well. Someone that is in the 3L year of Law School has imparted a great deal of advice and insight to how they arrived to where they were and where I could be. I have now reached new goals since my time when I arrived in DC just by getting to know people and making connections. 

My Major Ties

I have found that many of the courses that I have taken within my majors have allowed me to understand and properly do my job in the licensing department as a intern at the Treasury Department. Having majors such as Public Service & Public Policy and Global Studies really make my placement in the Office of Foreign Assets Control a great fit. My courses such as my Contemporary Policy Challenges, which focused on evaluation and creation of policy has really helped me with writing licenses and evaluating requests. My primary work at OFAC requires that I evaluate and create licenses surrounding sanctions in other countries specifically Iran and Cuba. These can range anywhere from licenses for athletes from sanctioned countries, to museums collecting artwork, to property transactions. My required Persuasive Writing Course has been a large component to my everyday work, writing a license or evaluating a request for a license requires a lot of analysis and much of the writing I had to do for the course revolved upon analysis writing. My Thinking Globally course introduced me to new countries and customs and in many of the requests for licenses revolve upon cultural antiques and needs to bring to the United States. These requests help me realize the world outlook and the types of people that are in the United States. Overall I feel that almost all of my academic studies have contributed and helped with my internship work. It has also allowed me to feel much more comfortable with my work and allowed me to grasp why each topic that was covered in class was necessary and important for future work.

Activities in DC

This past week I was able to attend a very fun event in Washington DC. I attended the Congressional Baseball game on Thursday. It was a lot of fun and it gave me a new insight to all of our representatives. It was nice to see a side that wasn’t them in suits or them having arguments on the hill. It was also incredibly interesting to see them play on that particular day, the day the democrats had a walk out and the day that the Affordable Care Act was seen as constitutional by the Supreme Court. Whether the representatives were focusing on those particular things throughout the game it was not noticeable. Being amongst the crowd though, that is an entirely different story. The seats had been split one side of the baseball field ended up being for republicans and the other was for the democrats. It was very interesting to be a part of the large crowd of people. You had people cheering for both sides and when things began to get very stressful in the game you could hear the democrat fans stating that they needed another win for the day. Coming from a very red state such as Arizona it was interesting to be among a large group of democrats. It was also very fun to just sit and watch a baseball game in DC. The only thing that I had to complain about the whole game was that it had to fall during a week day and I ended up leaving at around the 6^th inning because of work the next day and I could not stay for the whole game. When I had left the democrats were leading and it was crazy to see that their pitcher could really pitch. Some representatives that were playing either had played baseball in school or on an outside team of some sort or were just doing it for fun but you could automatically tell which representative had played baseball before and that made it really fun and interesting. Normally I’m not a huge baseball fan but it was a lot of fun to watch representatives play at a charity game and be with friends that were having fun with it too, not to mention receiving a lot of free items such as hats made it worthwhile… especially being a poor college student and all.

Rep. Jeff Flake

I had a unique opportunity to be able to meet and talk to Arizona Representative Jeff Flake from the 6^th district. I had no idea what to expect for our scheduled visit and was amazed at the mere size of the Rayburn building when I first walked up to the front entrance. As I was walking around I was a little perplexed as to the crazy bustling of people as they quickly walked left and right around the marble walls. Once everyone from Capital Scholars had met with one another and were seated in a small room we waited a few moments for the Representative to arrive. I had conducted lots of research from his long time in politics and was looking forward to asking him questions regarding his interest in going into politics and his interest in continuing his career.

When he had finally arrived, he and two other gentlemen entered with him, at first I was a little disappointed because I believed that he would simply give answers pre-approved by his staff that followed him in or that he would not be willing to discuss everything that I had hoped to ask. It was a relief to hear though that our evening would be a very candid conversation that would be strictly off the record and that he would answer everything to the best of his ability. I found this very interesting and respectable as I know that most politicians will avoid these types of instances as to not jeopardize their position or for him his run for Senator Kyl’s seat.

Overall my experience with meeting Rep. Jeff Flake was very informative and enjoyable, he was not my representative for my district but myself having been a native Arizonan it was nice to meet with a representative that was born and raised most of his life in Arizona.

Personally my opinion to Rep. Jeff Flake is of respect not simply because he is a politician for my state but more to the point that he is a rare politician that I feel our country needs more for the success of our nation. Although he is a Republican I find it respectable that he is willing to step over his party line at times to side with a vote or opinion with that of the opposite party because of the benefits that it will bring the nation as a whole rather than the party itself. I feel that today’s politicians and people in America tend to be less bi-partisan and more willing to fight an argument simply because of a party view than the overall larger picture. This type of thinking has led to the citizens of America viewing the Congress as a detrimental part of our government which is less that disappointing to say the least because of the way the media has portrayed their stand still in most of the subjects that have been brought to the floor.

Prior to this event I had never had the opportunity to sit down and talk to a representative as candidly and openly as we were able to. It was a great glimpse into the life of Rep. Jeff Flake and more so the life of a Representative in the House. As to his politics I have no personal opinion that I wish to express in a blog but I do feel that he is a great man that cares deeply for his family, his constituents and this country and personally I feel that those are excellent foundations needed to be involved in politics. I respect what he does because as a politician he will continuously be placed under scrutiny and questioning as to his decisions for Arizona and it’s a part of the job that he had expressed you simply need to get used to.

I have never had any desire to enter politics but I did enjoy getting to learn and understand what it was like for a politician in Arizona. It will be interesting to watch as he enters the election for Senate and see what many Arizona constituents will expect and want of him. I walked away with a new outlook of both him and his job. It was a very informative and intriguing hour and a half conversation regarding his past, present and future aspirations and goals.  He took the time to answer as many questions as he possibly could due to the time restraint and was as thorough and honest as possible.

My one small complaint regarding the required meeting was that the Rayburn building is by far the most confusing building to exit once the main entrance has been closed. I have never felt as if I walked in a bigger circle than I did that evening to simply find an exit that I had passed by at least two times.

OFAC outreach

Earlier this week OFAC organized a breakfast for all of the staff located in the OFAC building to get to know the interns. Just through this breakfast I was able to get to know some key people located in the U.S. Treasury Department such as the Director of OFAC, Assistant Director of Licensing and Compliance and was able to discuss planning lunch with some attorneys that work with policy in the Treasury Department which is a large interest of mine. The Licensing department of which I am a part of has monthly meetings that allow me the opportunity to get to know the people on the same floor that work on different projects. Through these meetings I have had the opportunity to get to know all the aspects that the Licensing department is a part of in dealing with other countries with regards to sanctions.

My experience these past three weeks has been unbelievable and in this short span I have been able to branch out and create new connections and friendships that I hope will last a lifetime. I am excited to see how many more people I will have the opportunity to cross paths with. 

DC Connections

I have had the opportunity to meet so many great and amazing people in the short span of my three weeks in the DC metropolitan area. My time at George Washington University, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), the city, and CrossFit Balance Gym have allowed me the chance to talk and get to know a large number of people.

Within my first two weeks of arriving in Washington, DC I was able to meet a female Captain from the United States Marine Corps that would be the Marine Officer Instructor for the NROTC at George Washington University this fall which for me was a great moment since having the opportunity to talk to very many female officers is a rare coincidence at Arizona State University. Having the opportunity to exchange contact information was helpful not only to just receive guidance from another female in the military but also discuss different aspects that the ASU NROTC does next to what GW will be doing this coming fall. Joining a CrossFit gym, called CrossFit Balance, was a great decision on my part due to the different types of people it has been exposing me to. I was able to meet an intern that was living at GW and was taking the same CrossFit class that I was in. Not only did I have a chance to meet another intern that was from Alaska but I was also able to get to know the members of the gym that work in all types of positions and areas in DC. Having locals as acquaintances allows me the opportunity to get to know some great places to eat and some local advice on places to visit.

OFAC does a great job at allowing the interns to get to know one another. The intern that shares a room with me has by far been one of the best connections that I have made this summer. Having been an intern in Washington, DC for the past three years over the summer she has given me a lot of advice on different locations to go to. Since she is a law student at Villanova Law School she has listened to my aspirations and helped me plan out the rest of my time at ASU and not only that but she has taken me to a Pro Bono Fair with her where I was able to get in touch with some lawyers in the DC area and meet other law students. As the oldest in my family it is nice to have made a connection with someone that is willing to assist me with my educational and career aspirations and listens to where I hope to end up in a few years. Through her I was able to meet with some of the law interns that are located in OFAC and through them met the other interns working on other floors. Every Friday all of the interns meet for lunch outside of OFAC and go to the food trucks together. This has allowed me to get to know the other interns from different floors and create great friendships with them as well. As a group of interns we all have organized our own BBQs and weekend activities that we can do as a group. Many of the interns that I am working with are from the DC area attending American University, George Washington University, and Georgetown and have introduced me to their friends that live in the local area. Enjoying the company of the people that I work with make my daily workdays even more enjoyable and allow me an opportunity to step out of my ASU comfort zone and meet new and interesting people.

Creating Connections

OFAC does a remarkable job at promoting and creating connections. The intern that I share a room with as I had stated previously attends Law School currently as do most of the other interns on the OFAC floor. This gives me a great opportunity to get to understand and know what Law School is like and see if it truly is something that I want to pursue. Not only am I surrounded by current students but my supervisor is also an attorney and has already given me some great advice.

The OFAC floor held a breakfast the other morning to allow the rest of the interns to get to meet and know one another as well as allow the other licensing officers to get to meet and know all of us as well. It was overall a fantastic opportunity and I left feeling much more confident about my time at the Treasury and interning in OFAC. Not only was I able to meet with some of the other licensing officers but we were given the opportunity to talk and meet with the Director and Assistant Director. Being in a new city that I had never been before it was also great to get to meet some locals and hear some advice. Overall I am very pleased with my internship, the work has fluctuated from mundane to incredibly difficult but I have learned a great deal and also have learned how much the Treasury Department deals with in regards to Terrorism files and such. It is very comforting knowing though that my supervisor has an open door policy as does everyone else on the floor so that if I come to a difficult issue I can always approach them.

The Treasury Department creates lectures and trips to visit locations in DC for all the interns that are currently located there and I am very excited to be able to see and do more in the DC area.

First Day of the Internship

My first day started out far from smooth but overall it turned out to be a great day. I arrived at the front steps of the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) building as I had discussed with my supervisor prior to nine. The walk was beautiful, I had a short walk from the GW dorms to the OFAC building and I have an amazing view since I walk past the Old Executive Office, The White House, and the Treasury building.

I kept looking at my watch and saw 9 go and come and I began to become paranoid. I called my supervisor's number and no one answered and then I began to doubt myself on what I had discussed previously with my supervisor. Luckily, one of her coworkers came to get me and had told me she was stuck in traffic. The amount of security that a person has to go through in DC is ridiculous, to amount of security needed to enter a government facility is beyond crazy. Once I was inside I received my ID and was taken up to the Licensing Department floor and introduced to everyone. I felt very fortunate for my internship and was slightly worried that I'd become a person associated with the stories of internships and how there was a possibility that I could become a staple pusher and a coffee run girl. I was excited to see that I'd actually be able to analyze licenses and write some and be able to incorporate some of what I've already covered in my courses in my work. I was settled into my office with another intern who currently is a third year law student at Villanova Law School. Overall it was interesting to see that only five students were selected to intern in the Licensing Department and I was the only Undergraduate student.

Once my supervisor came in we spoke briefly about Arizona, since she's an ASU alumni, and spoke about my future aspirations. She gave me some work to overview and that very first day I was assigned my very two first cases. So overall the day didn't start smoothly but it did end extremely well. Having never worked a nine to five job, overall the experience is very different. My favorite part of my internship would be the fifteen minute walk to and from work as I walk past The White House.

Who I am & Where I Intern

I feel incredibly fortunate to have be given such an amazing opportunity to be an intern in the U.S. Department of Treasury in the Office of Foreign Assets Control for a semester. It's given me a great and rare opportunity to leave my comfort zone of Arizona and experience something new in Washington, D.C. 

My name is Leonor and I am currently a Junior studying Public Service & Public Policy. I am always used to having to explain to people what exactly my major is when I tell them but one of the greatest experiences was having a phone interview for the position at the Department of Treasury with my now presiding advisor and her absolutely love my major and tell me how it's such an ideal major for anyone that wants to work in the Treasury Department. 

All the classes that I've taken and everything that I've had to study has, in my opinion, prepared me adequately to work in the Licensing Department for the Treasury Department. I am excited to see where I end up at the end of my internship and how much of a difference my career goals will change.