Sotomayor & More

The past two weeks I have had numerous great experiences. First, I had the great privilege of attending to Sonia Sotomayor’s confirmation hearing. I had to get up very early and wait in line for about two hours, but I felt that it was very important to attend in person. I really enjoyed the experience, and it was exciting seeing her in person being questioned by the senators. Even more exciting is the historical significance of watching a first Hispanic nominee to the Supreme Court! At first, I thought I might not be able to make it inside because the line was really long, but eventually I ended up in the hearing room and listened for about 20 minutes, as the policy was to let each group of twenty go in and watch the hearing for twenty minutes. It was also interesting to walk inside the senate chambers.

Back at CSIS, the leadership program organized its weekly luncheon, and the main organizer asked me to be a group leader. Each group was given a position and prepared a resolution concerning a free nuclear world. My group and I were assigned to debate on the negative side, and I was tasked with presenting the arguments for the group in front of the interns in the room. Luckily, we had two interns in my group who were from the international security program and really understood the arguments very well, so they made my job relatively easy -- all that I had to do was present it.

Last week, we all had the privilege of having breakfast with the president of CSIS, who talked to us about the American political system. He gave us a quick overview of the past 80 years of the system, and talked about how President Obama is doing so far. It was a really informative breakfast, and I understood a lot more about the system just in the nutshell that he presented to us.

I concluded this past week by getting a new assignment from my boss, Andrew. This project involves looking at Obama’s policies in the Middle East and Africa, particularly governance issues. I will have more to say once I start actually working on it next week.

Week Four

My fourth week went really well. I worked mostly on media monitoring and note taking at two events (one on Climate Change, and another on Global Health). I also took photos to be put on the CSIS website. I would say that the highlight of the week was staffing at Admiral Michael Mullen’s event that we hosted at the center. Admiral Mullen, the speaker, is the chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff. He spoke briefly about the Middle East and then took questions. The room was packed, including many members of the media. Additionally, I worked with congressional lists, putting them into a spreadsheet for the purpose of future events at the Center. This gave me some extra skill on how to work with excel. After I finished the congressional list project, my supervisor at the center assigned me to another project, which has to do with editing the multimedia audio. This assignment was to edit the audio and write captions for the CSIS website.

Overall, I would say that my knowledge was most expanded by the climate change event, at which the panelists spoke passionately about the bill that recently passed through the House of the Representatives and is making its way through the senate. They spoke in depth about Obama’s stance on this bill and his what his position will be when he goes to Copenhagen. On the other hand, at the global health event, which was the last event before the weekend, the speaker highlighted the fact that university campuses are becoming more interested in global health. He added that global health as policy must be supported because it would help boost global security.

Week Three!

My second and third weeks went extremely well, and I must say once again that it has been very educational. My responsibilities during this week ranged from assisting with the news crews who come pretty often to the Center to interview the Scholars, to attending a hearing on Capital Hill. I attended a hearing at the House of Representatives about the U.S-Japan relationship. The event was really informative, and there were many guests in the room. I went to the Hill three times consecutively during the week. Whenever I went there, I enjoyed the experience because it presented me with a great opportunity to see the daily routine of the work force there, including seeing where the offices of each congress-person is located. This opportunity is one of the many chances that CSIS provides interns like me with, and this is done through the director of congressional relations at the Center. Moreover, my job also entails monitoring the media. In this role I log data into a spreadsheet. I am glad to enhance my skill of working with spreadsheets, which I never had a real reason to utilize as much as I do now. Furthermore, I have also been doing research for a project that the director of communications and marketing has assigned to me, so now I am learning something about marketing and communication.
As I am headed into my fourth week, I am getting more and more projects to work on, so I am definitely getting the hands-on experience that I was looking for. I have also been attending more events both at the center and outside the center. A few days ago, I went to the Woodrow Wilson Center to see an event on Iran’s election, which was broadcast on C-Span. The speakers were great, with in-depth knowledge about Washington, DC and the world. I also attended leadership events that all the interns have to attend once a week. The speakers are very talented. I am trying to absorb and cram in as much knowledge as possible, and so far I think I'm succeeding!