Working at the Atlantic Center for Capital Representation

This is the next in a series of posts by recipients of the Career Services Summer Funding Grant. We’ve asked funding recipients to reflect on their summer experiences and talk about the industries in which they’ve been spending their summer. You can read the entire series here.

This entry is by Constance Miller, COL ’18

In his Poetics, Aristotle argued that a true tragedy was characterized by both pity and fear. Pity was best evoked by a change of fortunes from good to bad, while the most fear was generated from the story of a man like ourselves—neither wholly good nor wholly bad. As such, this tragic hero would evoke fellow-feeling in the members of the audience, who would identify with the mixed virtues and vices of the hero. Finally, a tragic hero was this sort of man of indeterminate morality whose fortune spoiled, “not through vice or depravity, but by some error of judgment.” This past summer, I watched this pattern play out time and again in the lives of countless deeply complicated men, all found guilty of capital murder.

I spent my summer interning with the Atlantic Center for Capital Representation (ACCR). ACCR is a non-profit that provides legal advocacy, consultation, and mitigation services in death penalty and juvenile life without parole cases. My projects came in ebbs and flows. Some days I summarized trial transcripts, always aiming to reduce the page count by 96%. These summaries would be used by legal teams preparing for an appeal, giving them a quick idea of how the original sentencing phase had unfolded while they familiarized themselves with the case. As I created these summaries, I was to make a note of anything that looked “sketchy.” “Sketchy” was a broad category, ranging from procedural irregularities to prejudicial and irrelevant testimony to questions regarding the fact patterns of the crimes themselves. Other days, I might find myself combing through various academic studies on the reliability of sentencing criteria in certain states. The compilations I submitted would be used by the center to write op-eds or for further outreach and advocacy.

Then there were the “mitigation theme” days. Mitigation is essentially a legal catch-all for circumstances, character, and experience which might reduce the moral blameworthiness of a defendant. On these days, I was tasked with reviewing social histories and looking for anything that might evoke the pity and fellow-feeling of the jury. I would compile facts and episodes by theme, hoping that the lawyers would be able to show each story for the sympathetic mix of good and bad that it was.

On a few occasions, I would scour the internet for a specific name or story that embodied the tragedy of our justice system. If I found anything promising, I would submit the name and story for use in a future op-ed, provided we obtained the consent of the individual and their attorneys. It was not difficult to find men and women who had been affected. Everywhere I looked a Brutus sat on death row while Cassius walked free. Countless Raskolnikovs wrestled with guilt and mental illness, aching for absolution but confined to solitary. In one story I heard the cries of Masada, as fathers killed their wives and children, believing they saved them from a worse fate. Over every story lay the pall of poverty, domestic abuse, neighborhood violence, and mental illness.

Perhaps the most unsettling aspect of sentencing was its dependence on the skill of a lawyer in producing an effective tragedy. So much depended on whether the defendant could be depicted as a tragic figure descended of the House of Atreus. The drama needed to be a showstopper. The defendant needed to be Oedipus.

My experience this summer was not glamorous. It was enraging and doleful, convicting and lonely. It was dimly lit computer screens, the cheapest coffee on the menu, and a silent aching. The ache came at times for the families of the victims, whose worlds would never be the same. It came at times for inmates and defendants, whose lives had been defined forever by the worst thing they’d ever done. But more often than not, the ache came for a country and a justice system where these people’s stories were possible. From the lifelong individual hardships faced by the defendants to the financial difficulty of defending indigent clients at all, the ache of injustice stayed with me all summer long.

I want to thank Career Services and their donors for funding this opportunity. The state of our justice system is such that defending indigent clients in death penalty cases is something of a luxury. There is precious little funding even for the most experienced defense lawyers in the field, and none at all for an undergraduate looking to gain early training and experience. My hope is to pursue the intersection of humanity and justice to their vanishing point, whatever that may be, and eventually, to law school. I also want to thank the Atlantic Center for Capital Representation for being willing to stand with me as I dipped my toe into the waters of the waves they have fought against daily. You do amazing work, and I am honored to have been a very small part of it.

Submit Now for Recruiter Add-On Interviews!

On-campus recruiting for full-time positions (which started on September 26th) is well underway and interviews for internship positions will start on Monday, October 23rd. The semester is flying by, so I thought now would be a good time to remind students about the Recruiter Add-On Interview process. If you were not able to get on an interview schedule (either because you did not apply through the original resume collection or you were not selected for an interview), the Add-On Interview can be a great second opportunity to speak with an organization of interest to you.

It is fairly common for employers to have open slots on their schedules when they arrive on campus because of candidates accepting other opportunities or because of unforeseen situations like students being ill. Many organizations opt to fill these open interview slots on the day of their on-campus interviews by accepting “Recruiter Add-On Interviews.” If you wish to be considered for an “Add-On” Interview, complete the “Recruiter Add-On Interview Request Form” for each position that interests you, attach the form to your resume, and deposit it in the “Recruiter Add-On Interview Request Box” outside of Career Services (Suite 20, McNeil Building). Collection hours are 9:15am-2:00pm one business day before the interview date. The OCR staff will notify students who are invited for an add-on interview as soon as an employer invites the student to interview. Note that there is no penalty for declining an Add-On invitation if the time doesn’t work for you. Use the “Weekly List of Employers Scheduled to Recruit On Campus” link to determine which employers to submit for each day. The spreadsheet will be updated weekly on the On Campus Interview website.

We see students every day who are invited to fill these last-minute open slots and often they go on to receive second round interviews and job offers because they took the time to submit requests for Add-On Interviews. We invite you to do the same!

In the Footsteps of Frank Llyod Wright

This is the next in a series of posts by recipients of the Career Services Summer Funding Grant. We’ve asked funding recipients to reflect on their summer experiences and talk about the industries in which they’ve been spending their summer. You can read the entire series here.

This entry is by Devon Christeleit, COL ’18

This summer, I had the opportunity to work as a Development and Communications Intern with Taliesin Preservation (TPI) at Frank Lloyd Wright’s home and studio in Spring Green, Wisconsin. After spending the past two summers at Fallingwater, I was seeking an experience that would allow me to learn more about Wright’s design. This internship allowed me to do just that, while also exploring a new field in a new place.

Within 30 minutes on the first day of my internship, I was already engaged in meetings and discussions with my colleagues. A large portion of my duties was to assist with event planning and coordination, and one of the biggest events of the season was happening the weekend following: the Tour du Taliesin. This cycling event allowed for hundreds of people to experience the rolling hills that once inspired Frank Lloyd Wright to design his home in Wisconsin and other buildings around the world. My first week passed quickly as I organized event details, interacted with visitors, and toured the estate. The Tour du Taliesin event was a long day, but also one of the most rewarding work experiences I had all summer.

As the weeks progressed, I was assigned individual assignments. I first began by spending a lot of time on the estate, taking photos of the 5 Wright-designed buildings and the fields that are still utilized to grow food today. These photos were used for promotional materials and social media posts. I also worked to draft future posts that TPI will be able to use for the remainder of the year. I assisted on development mailings and projects, and met a lot of people full of passion for Taliesin and Frank Lloyd Wright.

One of my favorite projects was a proposal I created for a podcast. I’m hopeful that with the research I completed over the summer, that TPI will be able to implement a new podcast series that will generate more donations over time. I also spent a week working with High School students in Architecture camp, assisting the instructor with logistics and providing design feedback to the students. This was another rewarding aspect of the summer, when students presented designs and drawings that they were proud of to a panel of guests.

I met so many interesting people during the summer- from students enrolled at the Taliesin School of Architecture, to staff members and volunteers, to locals who like to fangirl over Frank Lloyd Wright just as much as I do. By the end of my 13 weeks, I had developed a second-home for myself in Spring Green, where I felt so full of life. I learned a lot about new career fields like development and event planning, and plan to continue to explore these paths into the future.

I’m so grateful that I was able to pursue this incredible opportunity, and hope that I have conveyed just how exceptional my experience was.

Career advice for PhD students/postdocs on the Carpe Careers blog

By Dr. Joseph Barber

Are you looking for career advice that is focused on PhD students and postdocs? Do you have questions about how to navigate through your PhD program or your postdoc appointment to set yourself up for career success? Here is a summary of some of the recent posts you can find from the Carpe Careers blog on the Inside Higher Ed website over the last few months with answers for you!

Do you want great abs and a job in career fields beyond faculty roles? Find out why looking for quick fixes and easy options isn’t always going to be your best strategy by reading “5 tips for flat abs and an industry job”. There are no shortcuts when it comes to training for a marathon, but you may find that the same approaches you use for your fitness training can be equally helpful in your job search – read “why you should job search like a runner” to find out how.

Exploring your own skills, interests, and values requires a fair amount of introspection…, but that doesn’t mean you have go through this self-assessment and exploration process all by yourself. Read “You’re not alone” to find resources and support to help you figure out what comes next from a career perspective.

If you are finding your dissertation all-consuming in terms of the amount of time you are spending on it, then heed the advice in “Don’t let your dissertation run your life” to make sure that you are not missing out on professional development opportunities that might be helpful in your future job search. It is perfectly natural, after completing a 70-80 hour a week postdoc, to find careers that offer a more reasonable work-life balance to be very attractive. Be careful how you bring this subject up in job interviews, though, because there can be a risk of miscommunication. Read “How to discuss work-life balance” to get some insights on how to navigate these conversations with employers. And if you really want research to be part of your “life” even if it isn’t part of your daily work, then read “Crafting a research practice after the PhD” to learn about ways to continue to do research outside of an academic setting.

Employers in a diverse range of career fields often talk about their desire to find candidates with “leadership experiences”. While focusing on independent research may not seem to offer many opportunities to demonstrate leadership, your research, and the many volunteer experiences you have outside of your research, can help you to market your leadership skills. Read “Making leadership and service count in the job search” to find out how. And if you are looking for ways to be a better leader in your academic settings, then the post “On gratitude and leadership” provides some helpful insights.

Being a successful leader requires an ability to thinking strategically, communicate effectively, and build relationships with different groups of stakeholders. My organizations are highlighting their desire to find candidates who can also demonstrate a commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion. The post “Getting up to speed on diversity” provides useful information on ways that graduate students can talk about this subject confidently and authentically.

There are new Carpe Careers posts added every Monday – make sure you visit www.insidehighered.com/career-advice/carpe-careers to get the relevant advice you need.

Internship at United Nations Head Quarters (New York Office)

This is the next in a series of posts by recipients of the Career Services Summer Funding Grant. We’ve asked funding recipients to reflect on their summer experiences and talk about the industries in which they’ve been spending their summer. You can read the entire series here.

This entry is by Sojin Kim, NUR ’18

During this summer, I worked as an intern at Medical Services Division at United Nations Head Quarters (New York Office). Medical Services Division monitors health status and executes initiatives to improve quality of medical services provided to UN staffs including the Peacekeeping officers. As an intern, I was mainly responsible for monitoring epidemic outbreaks in the member states, evaluating quality of healthcare services in UN clinics and Peacekeeping missions, and supervising qualification of medical officers to be deployed to Peacekeeping missions around the world.

If I have to put my 14-week experience at the UN into one word, it would be ‘multi-culturalism.’ On top of all the technical aspect of work, I always had to keep in mind that I am working with people from diverse backgrounds. All supervisors come from different countries and backgrounds. Some are even more fluent in French or other UN official languages. Other interns are from different countries. In fact, there were 7 interns in our division over the summer and only 2 of them were U.S. citizens.
This is not limited to staffs in the Medical Services Division. Every officer I met during the internship came from different countries in which they had different work culture and environment, political structure, education system, language, health infrastructure and level of development in technology. As each staff I communicated had different level of expectation according to their backgrounds, every task involved standardization within certain level of flexibility. I believe this feature distinguishes the experience at UN the most.

Overall, UN provided a variety of global opportunities besides work. Plenty of meetings and events are held in the HQ office and interns are allowed to participate most of them. I mainly observed Security Council meetings and participated events held by delegations. Other interns also observed different Council meetings which they were interested in. In addition, I had chance to see the Antonio Guterres, the Secretary General of UN, during the Townhall meeting.

After I received the offer letter, I hesitated working for UN for a few reasons. One of the problems was that UN does not pay interns despite of high cost of living in New York city. Also, internship at UN does not offer full-time position after graduation. As I wanted to find a position that can lead to next step of my career, I was not fully positive on making decision to spend my summer at UN.

With a variety of resources I could experience and made me learn, however, I do not regret spending my last summer vacation working at Medical Services Division at UN HQ. If any of you reading this want to gain experience at UN HQ, do not hesitate it and go for it!