After two months, my internship at the Women’s Law Project has finally drawn to a close. Yesterday was my last day and today I moved out of our apartment and drove home.
I had a wonderful time this summer and I’m sad it is over. I will be back in Philly soon, however, as Customs Week is just around the corner!
It seems a little incredible, but I have just over a week left at my internship. Next Friday is my last day and I’m moving out of our apartment the following morning.
It seems to me like now is the time to sit back and reflect on the last two months. Did I accomplish everything I wanted to? Did I learn something?
On the living-in-an-apartment-in-Philadelphia front, I certainly learnt a lot. I’m a lot better cook than I was two months ago, as evidenced by the fact that the number of successful meals I cooked increased inversely proportionate to the mess I made and number of kitchen items irreparably destroyed. I now know how to unclog a drain, have keys fixed, get rid of flies, and go grocery shopping on a student budget (even when tempted by all of the wonderful foodstuffs at Whole Foods).
I also experienced Philadelphia as a tourist and a resident. I went to Independence Mall, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Love Park, Penn’s Landing, the Italian Market, Chinatown, Reading Terminal Market and the Magic Garden. I had my first Philly cheesesteak. I also learned how to navigate the crowds of tourists who have the annoying tendency to block the sidewalk near our apartment as they line up to get a cheesesteak.
Did I get to see everything I wanted to? No, there is still the Philadelphia Zoo, the Franklin Institute, the Atwater Kent Museum…
Of course, I did also go to my internship this summer Monday through Friday. I can’t possibly list everything I experienced and learnt at the Women’s Law Project here but I will share a couple things.
The range and breadth of my experience certainly far exceeded my expectations. I now know nearly every zipcode in Philadelphia and can tell you, with a fairly high degree of certainty, its location and racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic make-up. I learned this rather inane set of data in two ways. Firstly, through outreach. I spent many hours a weekend researching each zipcode and combing through the Telephone Counseling database looking at call distribution across zip codes. Secondly, through counseling and intake. Behind all this demographic data, are people who call the WLP at some of the worst moments in their lives. For many zipcodes, I can also picture a specific caller I have talked to, trying to help her deal with the problems in her life.
Nobody calls the WLP when life is going swimmingly well. Everybody calls the WLP when they have a problem, usually of an unimaginable magnitude. Rarely does a caller have just one question. Most of our clients are trying to fight multiple fires: they have an abusive partner, they are fighting for custody of their kids, they need a divorce, they have no money, they have no health insurance. I listen to their problems for an hour or even just ten minutes, but I can get off the phone. For our callers, these problems are their lives. That was one of the hardest things for me to come to grips with this summer.
On the phones, you see the best and worst of humanity. You hear about terrible things people to do one another. You also hear women who are so resilient in the face of incredible hardship. The dignity and graciousness of many of the callers I have talked to takes me by surprise every time. I can only hope that if I was ever in a similar situation, I could be like that.
The thing that I learnt this summer which was probably the hardest to understand but the most essential is the importance of listening. Sometimes, all anyone needs is to have someone who will listen and validate the person’s story.
The learning curve over the last two months has been huge. Whilst I may eventually forget all the technical details I have learnt about family law or Philadelphia zip codes, I believe I won’t forget the larger lessons about privilege, compassion, and justice.
Also, I won’t forget to make sure to always be really nice to the office manager as she will be the person to help you when you break the copier… and the shredder.
On Friday, rather than hit the streets with flyers for outreach, we elected to stay in the comfort of air conditioning and do a mailing. In total, we send letters to 76 places in Philadelphia. By the time we were done, I could use the postage meter machine like a pro!
An afternoon's work ready to be mailed off.
I was quite surprised: I actually quite enjoyed this Philly culinary tradition!
I can’t believe I have been interning at the Women’s Law Project for over a month now. It is amazing that I feel like I’ve just started, yet I only have three weeks left.
I realized, after scrolling through my previous entries, I have never really talked about the physical environment of my internship. Maybe an office in the middle of Philly is not quite as exciting as the locales in which other CPGC interns are currently working, but it seems worthwhile mentioning at least.
We live about 13 blocks from the WLP office. (I say “we” because, as I previously mentioned, both Lizzy and I work at the WLP). We walk to and from work everyday. Since it is Philly in the summer, the weather is brutally hot and humid. Luckily, the WLP is well air-conditioned, so from nine to five I escape the Philly heat.
In the office, I have a small cubicle in a cluster of other cubicles, all assigned to the Telephone Counselors. Since there are more volunteers and interns than desks, everyone rotates spots depending on who is in for the day. However, I am the only full-time intern this summer so I usually grab the same desk everyday.
On a typical day when I’m counseling, I print out the daily log and begin making calls right away. I take down notes on scrap paper, which I then record in our database after I have talked to the caller. Before I phone callers, I try to look at their intake notes and pull up information on my computer that I think will be helpful to them. When I have questions about the proper information to give a caller, I run it by my supervisor before getting back to the person.
One of my favourite aspects of my internship at the WLP is lunchtime. Typically, the entire office has lunch at the same time in the conference room. The conversations at lunch range over a very varied set of topics, but they are always fascinating. Everyone has something interesting to say: from the staff attorney to the law students to the office manager.
One of the great things about a small office is that you know everybody who you are working alongside by name. The atmosphere at the WLP is super friendly and engaging. I think this is one of the components that has made my internship great so far: working around knowledgeable, passionate, and enthusiastic people.
July 4th is quite a big deal in the city where the Declaration of Independence was signed. It felt like we ran from event to event this weekend, yet there were so many other events for which we didn’t even have time. On Sunday, we went to the all-you-can-eat ice cream festival down on Penn’s Landing. The placed was packed with people and the proceeds went to charity.
On Monday, we went to the parade in front of Independence Hall. It was a ton of fun watching everyone go by, but it was super hot standing out in the sun. After retreating inside to cool down, we walked across the city to go to a friend’s Fourth of July barbeque. After that, we headed out to the JFK Parkway to watch the free concert and fireworks. The announcers said there were 100,000 people on the Parkway and I can believe it. The place was packed! I had a really great time listening to the music and then watching the fireworks. Getting home was a little tricky, though, as those 100,000 people all wanted to leave at once. We finally made it back and collapsed into bed after an extremely exhausting July 4th.
Watching the free concert on the Parkway.