Start of the Week
Monday
In our GW seminar we learned about voting rights. We talked about how Latinos are about one fifth of the population of the United States, but when we look at the outcome of elections we are the ones that vote the least. Learning this makes me want to do more and encourage more of my family and friends to vote. Us not voting makes it look like we do not care. We need to vote to show that we are apart of this country too and that our problems matter too. If politicians see more Latinos voting they will try to do more to target us and help us. Additionally, we have the right to vote, we should all be interested in who is leading our country. In the second portion of our day we had Christian and Guillermo talk to us about different topics. We discussed and did activities that had to do with conflict resolution, conversations with supervisors, and giving and receiving feedback. (I was very bad at taking pictures this week, so there is less than usual).
Bowling is Not My Specialty
Tuesday
I started my day at work by looking at my emails since I had not looked at them since last Friday. I then worked on setting up one-on-ones with people. These meetings have been the highlight of my internship so far. I like learning about people’s backgrounds and how they got to where they are at. I left for lunch a little early today because I was having lunch at The National Democratic Club with Marco Davis, the President/CEO of CHCI. It was probably the best lunch I ever had. I had a brisket burger and fried chicken with potatoes and a biscuit. We also got to learn more about Marco. Work was pretty slow after lunch. After work I met up with some people from the White House Liaison office to go bowling. We went bowling at the Truman Bowling Alley. This was such a cool experience and I am grateful that Fabiola invited me. I didn’t bowl very good, but took some cool re-enactment pictures.
Wednesday
Class with Neha was very informative and interesting today. We had speakers from Rural Development and Food and Nutrition Service. It was so cool to listen to the speakers from Rural Development discuss about how wide-spread rural development is. They have offices in every state and they are in touch with people local to them. They want to be able to help people with their specific problems. I also found the Food and Nutrition Service interesting because of a lot of the programs in this agency were familiar to me. SNAP/EBT and WIC were both programs that my family received help from. We are very thankful for these programs because they really are beneficial to so many families around the country, The USDA really inspires me because of all the work they do to help people. Throughout the day I had some coffee chats with people, sat in Neha's office while she was in a meeting, and worked on different assignments.
America’s Birthday
Thursday
The Fourth of July was one of my favorite holidays growing up. I loved getting together and having a bbq, watching a parade, and lighting fireworks. Now I can say I spent a Fourth of July in the nation’s capital. We got up early and went to watch the parade. I thought it was awesome they included so many different cultures in the parade as well. We then bought some food instead of making it. (It’s kind of hard having a bbq without a grill). After this we went and hung out with some friends and eventually made our way to the Capitol. Our CHCI friends offered to let us in for the event. They had a concert and people were watching the fireworks from there. However, the group I was with was not let in and we just watched the fireworks from the mall. I didn’t mind, it was a good day overall.
Chill Day
Friday
I left to work from Shenkman Hall at 8:15 like I always do, however it was kind of weird. On a regular work day at this time there are usually many people hurrying up and down the sidewalks to get to work. However, today the streets and sidewalks were fairly empty. I noticed the same thing once I got to work. I went into my office and no one was there. I checked my emails, and saw that Russellie had sent me an email letting me know she would not be in until later. That morning I spent my time doing research on the different agencies at the USDA. This was to help me select the one I could possibly do my final project on. I door dashed lunch because sadly there was no Farmers Market that day. Russellie came in around noon and I continued to research. I eventually came to the conclusion that I was going to use the Emergency Conservation Program. I decided to call it a day after this because it was a slow day. The rest of the day I spent getting ready to go to the beach Friday.
WEAR SUNSCREEN
Weekend
Saturday I got up at 5 am to get ready to leave for the beach. A group of us made a plan to go to Ocean City, Maryland. We rented a van, loaded the car and set off to the beach. I volunteered to not drive because I would rather just sit and watch TikTok. But it was nice to be in a car again, I prefer cars than public transit. The drive was about 3 hours and we got there around 8:30. We spent the day taking naps on the beach, playing uno, playing volleyball, and fighting the waves in the ocean. It was such a fun day, however I made the mistake of deciding I was too good for sunscreen. At the end of the day I could feel my skin burning. I had never gotten this burnt before. I spent that night putting on aloe vera over and over again. I woke up Sunday, still very burnt and repeated the process. It honestly was not helping and I just prayed it wouldn’t be too painful while I was at Six Flags that day.
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