Visit to the State Department
2011 Trafficking in Persons Report: This video captures Ally so well!
Madam Secretary herself
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| Meeting Ben Skinner with Ally, Lisa, Mr. Skinner in the middle, Professor Lederer, and Mike. |
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| Standing in-front of the podium where Hillary Clinton just was! |
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| In front of the State Department with Lisa, Ally and Shadia. |
My supervisor at Global Centurion worked at the State Department for 8 years, and has done extensive work on human trafficking. She is extremely well connected, and attends this event every year. It’s a high profile event, and me and the other interns in the office lucked out, and made it on the guest list! The event was at 2pm, but we were told to be there early, around 12pm have time to go through security and get a seat in the room where Secretary Clinton was going to speak. I’ll try and paint a picture of the event.
The State Department is a big 10 storey building not too far away from the Lincoln Memorial. The security is pretty legit. We were all made fully aware of this when my co-worker pulled out her phone to take a picture in the lobby-apparently that is a no-no. Not anyone can go into this building, so my passport information was sent ahead of time to be cleared. Anyways, after waiting for quite some time, the TIP Report office set up a desk in the lobby, where our names were checked, and all the guests were escorted through the lobby, up the elevator to the 8th floor. I don’t even know how to described what happened next. I step out of the elevator, into this beautiful lobby, ornately decorated with an ajoining reception hall. There, they had decadent cheese platters, olives, crackers served on State Department, gold trimmed dinnerware with napkins stamped with the U.S. seal. This room opened up to a large balcony. I walked out there as I was snacking on a mozarella, artichoke, olive kebab. The view was stunning! I could see the top of the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington monument, and the Capitol building in the distance. Another ajoining room was a diplomatic reception room filled with antique furniture, and oh, Thomas Jefferson’s desk happened to be there.
A crowd started to form around the doors to the Benjamin Franklin room, so I found my supervisor, and the other interns, and waited to get in the room. Once the doors opened, I followed my co-workers Ally and Lisa into the room. The first few seats were reserved for Ambassadors, and state officials, but Ally ended up grabbing seats right by the aisle. I was so excited. I have to explain a bit-Ally (from Montreal) LOVES Hillary Clinton. She couldn’t stop talking about it. I’ll give you a little perspective. Once the event was over, Ally noticed that all the seats on the stage were labeled with a sheet of paper. Ally saw Hillary Clinton’s reserved seat (the one she sat on) and grabbed it home. We were joking that she’s probably going to laminate it and hang it above her bed.
After the event, my supervisor introduced us to E. Ben Skinner. He’s an investigative journalist, and I was just reading his book on human trafficking, A Crime So Monstrous. It’s a great book he wrote a few years ago about human trafficking around the world. He’s quite handsome too-almost a blond version of Ewan McGregor. I really reading the chapters on Haiti, because that’s what I’m working on at my internship. He gave me his business card, and we talked briefly about Haiti, and he said to contact him if I needed anything. So, following the networking rules of Washington, I followed up with an email a few days later, and that led to a phone appointment a day after that. He’s done a lot of work in Haiti, and he gave me some feedback about the realities of Haiti, and what kind of anti-trafficking messages and tools would be most effective. It was a great conversation! And he encouraged me to go to Haiti, and said if I ever go I should let him know and he’ll set me up with his contacts there. It was very encouraging!
The rest of the week has been pretty routine. I watched Black Hawk Down in my US Foreign Policy class-as an example of what happens in a failed state, says my professor.
Throughout the whole semester, TWC puts on different professional development sessions and what not, so week I went to the Myers Briggs Personality test session. There’s a questionnaire I filled out, and then at the meeting we analyze the results. I learned a lot about my personal tendencies. There are 4 categories:
Actually, my roommate Prium knows quite a bit about the Myers Briggs tests, and she was trying to figure out what type I was, so I took the test and she was right on the money. There's quite a bit to learn from how different types match together. Prium and I are almost exact opposites--Prium is an ENTP (Extrovert, Innuitive, Thinking, Perceiving), and I am an ISTJ (Introversion-Sensing, Thinking, Feeling). We get along so well, but living with her other the last few weeks has made me realize how differently we think. I am more aware of how I think, and make decisions, and that not everyone thinks like I do. That kind of seems like common sense, but interesting nonetheless. My other two roommates are the same as me (Introversion, Sensing, Thinking, Judging) and they have similar tendencies as I do. Aliya and Janelle keep their room clean, they’re morning people...Janelle makes more to-do lists than I do! It’s pretty hilarious.
So I’m learning! And meeting new people, and I’m constantly being reminded that this city offers so much that I couldn’t find anywhere else. Just the friendships that I've been able to make with other interns and TWC students has been worth flying across the continent for.There’s an excitement about being here. The movers and shakers are here, and it's exciting to be apart of this summer. It’s the political center of the country and I'm going to have a really hard time leaving this city.
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| I found this picture on the State Department website. I'm in the bottom corner with Ally on my left. |
The State Department is a big 10 storey building not too far away from the Lincoln Memorial. The security is pretty legit. We were all made fully aware of this when my co-worker pulled out her phone to take a picture in the lobby-apparently that is a no-no. Not anyone can go into this building, so my passport information was sent ahead of time to be cleared. Anyways, after waiting for quite some time, the TIP Report office set up a desk in the lobby, where our names were checked, and all the guests were escorted through the lobby, up the elevator to the 8th floor. I don’t even know how to described what happened next. I step out of the elevator, into this beautiful lobby, ornately decorated with an ajoining reception hall. There, they had decadent cheese platters, olives, crackers served on State Department, gold trimmed dinnerware with napkins stamped with the U.S. seal. This room opened up to a large balcony. I walked out there as I was snacking on a mozarella, artichoke, olive kebab. The view was stunning! I could see the top of the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington monument, and the Capitol building in the distance. Another ajoining room was a diplomatic reception room filled with antique furniture, and oh, Thomas Jefferson’s desk happened to be there.
A crowd started to form around the doors to the Benjamin Franklin room, so I found my supervisor, and the other interns, and waited to get in the room. Once the doors opened, I followed my co-workers Ally and Lisa into the room. The first few seats were reserved for Ambassadors, and state officials, but Ally ended up grabbing seats right by the aisle. I was so excited. I have to explain a bit-Ally (from Montreal) LOVES Hillary Clinton. She couldn’t stop talking about it. I’ll give you a little perspective. Once the event was over, Ally noticed that all the seats on the stage were labeled with a sheet of paper. Ally saw Hillary Clinton’s reserved seat (the one she sat on) and grabbed it home. We were joking that she’s probably going to laminate it and hang it above her bed.
After the event, my supervisor introduced us to E. Ben Skinner. He’s an investigative journalist, and I was just reading his book on human trafficking, A Crime So Monstrous. It’s a great book he wrote a few years ago about human trafficking around the world. He’s quite handsome too-almost a blond version of Ewan McGregor. I really reading the chapters on Haiti, because that’s what I’m working on at my internship. He gave me his business card, and we talked briefly about Haiti, and he said to contact him if I needed anything. So, following the networking rules of Washington, I followed up with an email a few days later, and that led to a phone appointment a day after that. He’s done a lot of work in Haiti, and he gave me some feedback about the realities of Haiti, and what kind of anti-trafficking messages and tools would be most effective. It was a great conversation! And he encouraged me to go to Haiti, and said if I ever go I should let him know and he’ll set me up with his contacts there. It was very encouraging!
The rest of the week has been pretty routine. I watched Black Hawk Down in my US Foreign Policy class-as an example of what happens in a failed state, says my professor.
Throughout the whole semester, TWC puts on different professional development sessions and what not, so week I went to the Myers Briggs Personality test session. There’s a questionnaire I filled out, and then at the meeting we analyze the results. I learned a lot about my personal tendencies. There are 4 categories:
1. Extroversion-Introversion (where we focus our energy & attention)
2. Sensing-Intuition (how we prefer information)
3. Thinking-Feeling (the was we make decisions)
4. Judging-Perceiving (our attitudes toward the external world)
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| Walking around the National Mall around sunset |
So I’m learning! And meeting new people, and I’m constantly being reminded that this city offers so much that I couldn’t find anywhere else. Just the friendships that I've been able to make with other interns and TWC students has been worth flying across the continent for.There’s an excitement about being here. The movers and shakers are here, and it's exciting to be apart of this summer. It’s the political center of the country and I'm going to have a really hard time leaving this city.
