Our First Week

It amazes me how quickly time can fly in Washington DC. It has been exactly a week since the Glenn Fellows of Winter 2012 moved in and already the Capital of the United States feels like home. Actions such as hopping on the metro, exploring the night life of DuPont Circle, and using the ever convenient Peapod grocery delivery service has now become second nature to us.

Yesterday, after a lovely Friday evening on the town, a few Glenn Fellows and I pretended to pose as tourists and explore all the sights DC has to offer. We walked down Capitol Hill and began our long trek towards the Lincoln Memorial. On the way, we passed people protesting Guantanamo Bay, took the cliché but necessary OHIO photo with the Washington Monument as the “I”, posed in front of our favorite quotes at the Martin Luther King memorial, and ended our adventures at the Lincoln Memorial. Coupled with the weather and a good group, our walk around the National Mall turned out to be a nice change of pace from classes and work.  

But the Glenn Fellows primary reason for their stay in DC isn’t to see the sights or go out on weekends, our focus here is on the Internships we have and how we can learn from them. A definition of an intern can be as a nice as “an apprenticeship/on the job training for a white-collar job” or, as Urban Dictionary would describe it, “free slaves in the workplace.” In many ways, internships are a rite of passage, corporate hazing if you may. We all need to pay our dues, earn the experience, and build a resume; all in the ambitious hopes that there is something better after school. Some internships offer compensation in the form of monetary stipends or hourly wages, but in the DC area, the majority do not. I am currently an intern for the International Institute for Strategic Studies, or IISS. The IISS is a UK think tank dedicated to non-proliferation and conflict resolution, calling themselves the world’s leading authority on political-military conflict. As an intern, it is my job to help the analysts and director of my office do research, compile databases, find the proper sources for citations, and do any other organizational/research task they assign me. In my first few days there, it has been primarily learning and helping organize the office. However, every day that has gone by, I am given more responsibilities, research tasks, and knowledge. I hope that by the end of my tenure here, I am able to be much more knowledgeable on the major Middle East and Asian issues that the IISS does research on.

With that said, DC has been an absolutely blast so far. After our first week here, it feels like I’ve known my fellow WAIP students for years. As a group, our cohesiveness astounds me and I look forward to getting to know each and every single individual even better.

Adam K