School: City University of New York School of Law

My summer at the Georgia Office of the Child Advocate was a wonderful and educational experience. When I entered my internship, I was debating whether or not to pursue a legal career in policy or litigation and if child advocacy was a field I would be interested in pursuing. In addition, I already had experience working with child victims and witnesses of domestic and sexual abuse and I wanted to have an internship that would expose me to new information regarding children's advocacy and rights. By the end of the summer, I had not only learned much more about children's issues, I also gained perspective on my professional goals and aspirations.

Since I was considering a career in policy, I chose to work at the Office of the Child Advocate because the internship would only involve policy work; I figured that being intensely involved with policy would help me determine if I would enjoy this field of work. My supervisor was very invested my internship experience and upon learning that I wished to spend part of my summer researching the commercial sexual exploitation of children, arranged for me to work with one of the Barton Clinic supervisors so that I could learn more about that subject. This combination of work granted me the ability to learn about a wide array of issues in children's advocacy and helped me determine what issues within children's advocacy I found to be compelling, interesting and underrepresented in our legal system.

My work involved substantial research, legal/policy analysis, legal writing and drafting of legislation. For example, my projects for the Office of the Child Advocate included writing a memo on permanent guardianship for a judge, creating an evaluation system for child advocate attorneys, producing a memo on voluntary relinquishment of parental rights, drafting legislation on public disclosure of child fatality, researching how many children had run away while in state custody and writing letters to county DFCS offices and juvenile court judges regarding runaway youths in their counties. Projects for the sexual commercial exploitation of minors included researching the correlations between prostitution and prior sexual abuse, gang activity and running away, the age of consent to sexual activity in all 50 states and minimum age of prostitution.

Not only did I enjoy my internship because it involved research and policy analysis, I also enjoyed working with my supervisor. Considering most of my work could be done online via Westlaw and Lexis, my supervisor welcomed me to work remotely and I had the freedom to create my own work schedule. Although the Office did provide me with an office, more than half of my summer was spent working at various coffee shops around Atlanta. Assuming that I was competent, capable and resourceful, my supervisor only set deadlines for my work and never micromanaged my activities; however, she was available for questions and feedback when I requested assistance. Additionally, because my supervisor's entire legal career has been spent working in juvenile rights/advocacy, she was extremely knowledgeable about the area of law and was very helpful during the times I became "stuck" in my research or analysis.

Although I enjoy researching and working independently, there were times this summer that I missed working closely with peers in a team setting. The Office of the Child Advocate is small -- the Atlanta office only regularly houses my supervisor -- the other handful of staff work out of the Macon office. My supervisor was also very busy during the beginning of the internship; for example, I met with her on my first day of work and then did not see her again until a week and a half later. There were many times I was in an empty office, which felt a bit lonely and made the day go by extremely slowly. However, I did have an independent work schedule, so I had the flexibility to meet friends for a long lunch, take frequent breaks and arrange to work beside another ESCAP intern who had a similar work schedule and environment. In addition, because of my autonomous work environment, I really had to ensure that my own work product was well-researched, accurate and completed within a reasonable time. Although this meant that I was sometimes less productive than if I had a supervisor who was frequently examining my work, I really felt that this internship was an exercise in professional development. Working independently really made me aware of my own strengths and weaknesses and I think this summer was a good gauge for what my job performance will be like when I become an attorney.

Despite the fact that most of my summer was spent on research I also had the opportunity to attend meetings, legislative hearings and see the internal workings of children's advocacy. Over the summer, the Department of Human Resources held a public hearing on adoption subsidies and whether or not the definition of "special needs" should be altered with regard to the kind of subsidy adoptive parents would receive. In addition, the House of Representatives Commission on Abuse and Neglect had its first meeting and took public testimony on the issues affecting the welfare of children and families in Georgia. Throughout the summer I was also able to attend United Against Child Abuse Coalition meetings and hear about the plans to introduce the Model Juvenile Code for legislation during the upcoming legislative session. Being able to attend those meetings gave me a deeper understanding and appreciation of how even the most benign policy work has the ability to be politicized and fall culprit to misconception by the general public. Although some areas of the law can feel arbitrary and isolated, family and juvenile law plays a role in everyone's life and is therefore subject to everyone's scrutiny and input.

What I enjoyed most from my internship, though, were the discussions I had with other students, ESCAP faculty and my supervisor regarding children's advocacy. I enjoy constitutional law and discussing politics, and having the opportunity to share and discuss philosophies regarding the way our legal system handles the abuse and neglect of children, the rights of parents who had abused their children and the rights of children in our legal system, as well as other issues, with individuals who had similar interests in these issues was a fantastic experience.

Overall, I really enjoyed my placement at the Office of the Child Advocate and with ESCAP -- I encourage anyone who likes to research and is interested in policy work to take a placement there. In addition, working at the Office of the Child Advocate via ESCAP was a worthwhile experience. ESCAP provided great training, introduced me to different avenues of children's advocacy and supplied every ESCAP intern with resources and feedback to ensure for a productive, illuminating and enjoyable summer.