farewell D.C.

Friday was hectic because I was racing to finish my last couple projects before I left. I managed to go through a lot of census data and other research and finished my memo for our Emerging Communities Initiative. In the memo, I made recommendations for where we should direct our efforts in the South for Latino communities. If I had more time, I would have looked at other minority communities in the Midwest (e.g. the Hmong) and elsewhere (e.g. Somalis in Maine). In the end, however, I'm really proud of the work I put into my report, and I really hope that this helps them coordinate their work in the South.

In between finishing the ECI memo and compiling data for next year's Election Protection program, I had an exit interview with the Director of the Voting Rights Project. I hadn't ever really heard of an exit interview, so I found it kind of weird, but it actually was really helpful. The Director and I had a frank discussion about my experience at the Lawyers' Committee, and he gave me really good criticism and advice. I really appreciated everything he had to say, and I hope that it will make me a better employee in the future.

As I'm packing to leave D.C., I still can't really believe that my experience with the Lawyers' Committee is really over. On the one hand, I am really looking forward to going home and am anxious because there are a lot of things to take care of when I get home. However, I think that I will miss working at the Lawyers' Committee. Although it has been a frustrating experience at times, I still believe that I learned a lot about how to work in an organization. I've definitely learned how to better communicate my frustrations and my ambitions to superiors. Overall, I think that I benefited from having had this experience, and I can only hope that my work at the Lawyers' Committee has helped them out too.