99 hours

What can you learn in 99 hours? I am hoping the answer is A LOT. I have now spent 99 hours in my office working for The National Partnership for Women and Families. My cubicle has an inspirational sign from my best friend another from my mom, lists tacked to the walls, and binders full of information. I have countless folders saved to my hard drive and my emails sorted into countless folders. After 99 hours I realized that I should begin to evaluate my work as an intern.

            When I started reflecting I first asked myself – am I a good intern? Being in WAIP, we get a lot of advice on how to be a good intern: ask good questions, show up, say yes, be prepared, do you your research, network, and the list goes on. Each piece of advice holds merit and value, but I think the thing that I have found to be most important is having the confidence in yourself to do these things.

            The piece of advice that takes the most confidence for me is asking questions. We have this innate fear of asking questions because we are afraid to seem unprepared or unintelligent. Every time I have asked a question it has been met with a thank you and an apology for forgetting that it is not expected for me to know that piece of information. My lived advice on this one: if you’re afraid that a question is “stupid”, write it out in an email to the person you would ask and try one more time to answer it on your own. If you still need help, ask. Time and time again I have done this and realized how I could answer the question on my own.

            The confidence to be a good intern can also be hard to attain for me as a Social Work student in federal policy work. I know that I am at a deficit in experience and education at times and this may result in more questions and more improvement-based feedback from my supervisors. With that being said, I knew early on that I wouldn’t be the most experienced intern or the intern with the most background in this work, but I would strive to be the intern who catches on quick and works hard.

            Yesterday, one of my supervisors said to me that she felt as though I were already an employee and she appreciated how fast I caught on to the work that was being done. To me this is high praise and gave me strong affirmation in the work I have been doing.

            Each day as an intern in DC you gain invaluable experience. You gain experience in being an “adult”, in working full time for a company, and in balancing work, school and life. I thought that being an RA at OSU forced me to learn balance and time management like a pro. This experience has taught me that you are never finished learning these skills.

            99 hours is a sizable amount of time, and it has truly been time well spent. Outside of this, I have also been to many Smithsonian’s and the Library of Congress, I have biked in front of The White House, ran laps around the Supreme Court, studied on the steps of the Supreme Court, navigated the metro, frequented coffee shops, gone to Jazz in the Garden, met the Danish Prime Minister, visited embassies and learned about careers I had never heard of. DC is a place you never stop learning trying new things. We are almost a month in, and I can’t wait to see what my next adventure will be.

-Leah Uhrig