What new appreciations did you develop while working as an intern? Why?I developed an appreciation for free parking and careers with flexible hours. While I loved my internship with CIP, there was only one street by the office with free parking and it was full before I even got to work every morning. The only other options for parking were 2hr meters or a $14 parking lot. So I developed an appreciation for free, no time limit parking. I also developed an appreciation for careers with flexible hours because my mom's career allowed her to be able to drop me off and pick me up from work each day and avoid paying the parking fees. What qualities or characteristics did you see in the people around you that you want to develop in yourself? Why?One of my fellow interns was always thinking about others. She made it a point to talk to every person in the office everyday and get to know them on a personal level. Many days, I would come in to work and focus on just that: work. Only socializing with the other high school interns. But my fellow intern talked to past law students, new law students, older interns - everyone. She came in to the last day of work with a card for us all to sign for our mentor which was incredibly kind and thoughtful of her. It hadn't even occurred to me until I saw that my fellow intern had brought in a card that I should've brought something. This noticeable outward care for others that my fellow intern posses I would like to develop in myself. How did your view of life beyond high school change or develop during your externship?I realized during this month that life after high school is full of so many opportunities and it's okay to change your mind about your career and try new things. I spoke to many of the law students throughout the month, and it was interesting to hear their paths to law school and their specific law specialties. Some of them found their niche early on in law school and new their specialty after the first year; on the contrary, others were beginning their third year in the fall and still weren't sure what kind of law they wanted to pursue. What new questions has your externship inspired you to ask about our world? What has it made you wonder about? What are you moved to go out and do or learn about on your own time?This internship has definitely made me question our justice system and my faith in humanity. I'm interested to learn more about false incarcerations and hear more about how they happen. But on the flip side, I'm interested in the psychology behind criminals. Why do they commit these horrific crimes? In some cases, the person is 100% guilty yet still deeply believes they are innocent - what part of their brain makes them think this way? What does a psychopath's brain chemistry look like compared to a normal brain? How might externship influence the direction of your life?I definitely intend on taking some abnormal or criminal psychology classes in college because I find the concepts much more interesting now. At least for now, I have decided that law isn't my field, but the justice system is definitely an interesting topic to me. How did interpersonal relationships and/or collaboration at work influence your understanding of life outside of high school?One of the third year law students gave me a piece of advice for my time in college: ask for help when you need it. She told me stories of how her ego got in the way of asking for help in college and her grades suffered for it, so she passed on the wisdom she wished she had been told. I also learned through listening to the law students that everyone is dealing with the same struggles and it's important and healthy to work through them together. Many of the law students hadn't known each other before this internship (despite being in some of the same classes) and were able to compare notes and share study guides for big tests in mutual classes or give tips about past classes. Take and post a photo of a person, place or thing related to your externship experience and describe how it might be seen as a metaphor for your futureThis is a photo of an unopened letter (much like the ones we receive/send out daily at CIP). I chose this image because when you receive an unopened letter you know to expect a letter inside; however, you don't know what the letter says until you open it. Similar to my future in the sense that I know that it's coming - I will graduate high school, I will go to college, and I will have a career. But, much like a letter, I don't know what details that future will entail. I don't know yet what the letter of my future says.
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How did you measure the success of the work you did while you were an intern? What did you learn from this?The California Innocence Project receives thousands of letters from inmates claiming their innocence each year, and it's the interns responsibility to read through each letter and take the appropriate next steps. It was incredibly rewarding to watch as the intimidating pile of mail slowly shrunk each day. I learned about the power of motivation through this task because even though it felt as though I'd opened a thousand letters and the pile hadn't gotten any smaller, on the days when we'd team together and tackle a box, we would see the pile visibly shrink and that would give me the push of motivation I needed to continue going through the letters. How did you make a meaningful contribution to your workplace/world/self?I helped go through the mail that had been piling up for weeks which took a load off the attorneys' shoulders, and also gave hope to the falsely incarcerated inmates whose letters had been sitting in the office unopened for months. How was your work meaningful to your education?This work was meaningful to my education in two main ways: understanding the justice system and its flaws, and practicing empathy. Before this internship, I knew nothing about our justice system - I didn't even know jail and prison were different places. But throughout this internship, I have been exposed to the process of going to prison, appeals, Habeas Corpus, and much more. I have been exposed to legal documents and am now able to identify an Appellant's Opening Brief from a Reporter's Transcript and can understand terms used in these legal documents. But this internship was also a meaningful lesson in empathy: the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. Before this internship, I assumed everyone in prison was a "bad person" and never gave it a second thought when someone was thrown in prison for a crime. Through reading letters and questionnaires from inmates, I have really had to push myself to be empathetic and give them a chance to be telling the truth. It's really difficult to read through a nasty, uncomfortable case, and believe the inmate is not guilty when all of the signs seem to point that they are guilty. How was your work significant or meaningful to the world beyond school and your specific internship site?My work specifically of reading through the mail and corresponding with the inmates has the potential to completely change a person's life. If any of the inmates I sent questionnaires to have their case taken up by CIP and get exonerated, I would have played a key role in their exoneration and changed the course of their life forever which is such a neat concept for me. What did you learn about your own work ethic from your externship?I learned that I need human interaction in whatever career I choose to pursue. Being constantly surrounded with other interns made long office days more doable. I am a very self-motivated and focused person, but I learned that I can stay motivated even when the other interns lost their focus for the day. I know now that I need to take little breaks and mix up my tasks in order to keep me interested in what I'm doing.
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