Opportunities abound when interning in D.C.

Many college students spend the summer interning at various
organizations in Washington, D.C. The following is a personal
narrative about a particular work day early on in the summer.
By Monique Simpson
Daily Bruin Reporter 8:15 a.m.
Ninety-four steps below the corner of Adelman and Wisconsin Avenues
in an oval-shaped tunnel is where I have begun every weekday for
almost the entire summer. In an over-air-conditioned Washington,
D.C., subway station, I stand in my “work clothes”
““ usually a crisp white shirt, a knee-length skirt and my
navy blue identification tag ““ waiting for the train that
will deliver me to my summer internship. The train is always
overpacked with white-collar workers who rarely wear the fuchsia
pink, lime green or other summer colors I have come to associate
with summertime in Los Angeles. Squeezed between dark pinstriped
suits and perfectly folded newspapers, I tightly hold the metal
pole and brace myself for the jerks and turns of the train as it
zooms through the dark tunnel. Twenty minutes later, I reach my
final destination: The National Geographic Society.

8:35 a.m.
On the seventh floor of one of the society’s two buildings
lies my small gray cubicle. It’s nothing spectacular. One
wall is lined with old copies of the yellow-bordered magazine and
another is adorned with photos from my study-abroad experience. The
outside wall is tagged with a personalized name plate announcing my
existence to anyone who cares. For eight weeks this will be my day
home as the magazine’s editorial intern, but in reality
I’m just one of hundreds of college students who traveled to
our nation’s capital for the summer. As one person told me,
“D.C. runs on interns.” There are the White House
interns, Congress interns, the Smithsonian Museum interns,
non-profit organization interns and the list goes on.

9:40 a.m.
Each week I work with different editorial staff, such as A.R.
Williams, a staff writer in the Legend Department for more than 10
years. Her job is to create an exciting story that narrates the
pictures. Late Monday afternoon, she had assigned me to write a
“legend,” ““ a photo caption ““ for
photographs of a European and African woman. This job turned out to
be harder than it sounded, considering this was my third day
working on the assignment. Williams reads my legend, gives
suggestions on how to improve it, then reads some of the legends
she has just written to show me how my work should sound. After
writing down her suggestions in my yellow notepad, I go back to my
cubicle to give my legend another try.

10:30 a.m.
The caffeine from my daily morning soda is wearing off. My body has
yet to adjust to my 6:30 wake-up call. I pop on my head phones and
listen to the “Dirty South” rap music that is popular
on D.C. radio. In L.A., it is rare to hear hip-hop music from the
south played on the radio, but out here it is a regularity.

Noon
The entree of choice for today’s lunch is jambalaya, a
mixture of vegetable, sausage and chicken in a tomato sauce served
over rice. In the cafeteria, I sit with some of the geography
interns and their internship coordinator. It’s a mellow lunch
with a lot of small talk, not as interesting as lunch yesterday
with Williams. Williams had treated me to lunch at a small hotel,
where I had an opportunity to hear about her life and career
experiences, such as how she spent four years after graduate school
living in Mexico. She encouraged me to spend a year in Japan
teaching English, which I am considering.

2:15 p.m.
After finishing my legend, I begin my second assignment: research
for Williams’ upcoming story on Costa Rica. I surf the
Internet looking for recent articles on the country.

3:30 p.m.
I am able to sit in on various staff meetings regularly, such as
the photographers’ presentation of new pictures on Monday.
Today, I’m observing my first “wall walk” ““
a picture layout of an upcoming story is placed on a wall in a room
crowded with top staff members and people who worked on the story.
The photographer discusses each of her photos with the editor of
the magazine, then the editor looks at other pictures to make sure
the best photos were selected. The previous week, I watched a photo
editor begin the process of narrowing down 1,000 rolls of film to
the approximately 20 photos that would make it to final print for a
particular story. In the end, the editor agrees with the layout,
and the photographer is congratulated on a job well done.

6:30 p.m.
When the work is done for the day, I try to find some alternative
to going home and watching TV. This evening, it is vacation Bible
study at a local church. Yesterday, it was dinner with other
interns at a local burrito shop. Last week, it was a free concert
at the Kennedy Center, featuring a musical group from Cape Town,
South Africa. I spend my weekends similar to these evenings. Unlike
traveling on the slow MTA buses of L.A., I can conveniently catch
the subway for $1.30 and swiftly travel to various parts of the
city. I can visit exhibitions at the Smithsonian museums or
national monuments like the Vietnam Wall or simply roam in and out
of small shops. My favorite leisure activity is spending time
sitting on the lawn by the Reflecting Pool and writing in my
journal or picturing the black-and-white images of the thousands of
civil rights activists in the March on Washington in the 1960s.

8:30 p.m.
Ninety-two, 93, 94. My day ends as it begins, climbing the stairs
at the subway station. Of course, I’m more tired now and
dread the activity, but this is my daily exercise.