Greetings from DC!
I’m currently a Membership Intern at the World Affairs Councils of America, which is a non-profit that does global affairs education through its network of 90 councils across the country. On a day-to-day basis, I keep track of emails from our general inbox, upkeep tables with different information on council events, and supervise our membership database.
Speaking of which, these past few weeks my “Magnum Opus” of sorts has been cleaning our members’ database. It suffered from having hundreds of “junk” profiles of people who became inactive or left our network. I was able to diagnose the issue and provide solutions using Python coding for data science, which I learned both at community college (shoutout to El Camino College!) and Berkeley.
This was especially thrilling for me since I was able to put into practice a number of skills, ranging from coding to creative problem-solving. Having the feeling that I was able to fix something using what I’ve learned was very rewarding and confidence-boosting!
I’m also happy to say that my workplace is awesome! I really enjoy spending time with a wonderful group of talented and internationally-minded people who are doing everything they can to help councils engage their local communities in international affairs, especially at a time of growing sociopolitical isolationism.
This first half of my semester in DC has been incredible, it’s a dream come true to live in the capital, even if just for a semester. Making friends from across the UC campuses that I wouldn’t have met had I chosen to stay in Berkeley, and exploring what the city has to offer are both wonderful experiences that I’m very grateful for!
Adjusting to the weather has definitely been the most challenging aspect of being in DC, though. It doesn’t help that this is probably the roughest winter the capital has experienced in the last few years, with the massive storm that hit a few weeks ago halting my internship for almost a full week. I can say with certainty that California weather is unparalleled, and I didn’t appreciate it enough until I was treading through iced snow for 30 minutes a day after the storm with my grocery bags.
Nevertheless, weather aside, the city always has things to offer! So far I’ve been to the National Archives, the Holocaust Museum, National Museum of Natural History, and the National Gallery of Art, with many more remaining on the bucket list. It was surprisingly amazing how public transportation in the city can pretty much take you anywhere, making visiting all of these sites easier and more accessible, and is definitely something I will miss when coming back to California.
Overall, it has been a wonderful experience that I’m extremely grateful for, and I look forward to the remainder of the term, especially as the spring weather makes going out easier and more fun!