I finally got all my materials in for the Washington Academic Internship Program this week. Although I’ve been planning on this for awhile, it was a race to the finish line the night it was due. I did so many resume edits, I was starting to get sick of reading about myself, and my personal statement was rewritten from scratch more times than I’d like to admit. The program coordinators will place us in an internship based on our interests, but we can also try to find our own internship. I’ve been searching everywhere, including skipping class to go to a government career fair, which was a nerve-wracking waste of my time (I was mostly interested in the U.S. Department of State, and it is past the deadline to apply for summer due to background checks. As for working for Ohio government in the Fall, it’s too early to apply. Ironic). I went for a preliminary meeting with a coordinator, thinking I was good to go, and then he asked me, “what do you really want to get out of this program?� It was a hard question to answer, which is what led me to late night online searches and personal statement rewrites. Maybe I’m not looking for a government agency internship that will sound good on a resume but just lead me to a summer of stapling papers. Maybe I would prefer a non-profit group, where I could really see what it takes to advocate for a cause. An hour and a half before it was all due, I made my first choice for an internship the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which had a legal communications intern opening. I would love this, although it is far from what my first choice was before I really thought about what I wanted to gain from this program. I have an interview for the program on Thursday, so I will update soon.