Alexa Addison, COL ’24, Washington, DC
This summer, I was blessed with the opportunity to work for the New York Legal Assistance Group as an intern for the Domestic Violence Unit. NYLAG is a nonprofit civil legal services organization based in New York City which provides free legal assistance, financial counseling, policy advocacy, and impact litigation to individuals or families experiencing poverty. As an undergraduate, very few legal experiences allow you to do hands-on work where you speak with actual clients. As a result, I was very pleased to have gotten this opportunity at NYLAG, which was made possible by the funding provided to me by Penn’s Career Services.
My main assignments were weekly intake calls. Intakes are a preliminary screening in which I would collect demographic and contextual information about potential clients. I also worked on various projects translating documents and resources.
This was by far the most rewarding position I have ever had. Working in the Domestic Violence Unit, many of the intake calls which I conducted were heavy and hard to hear, but everyone I spoke with was incredibly grateful to have been listened to. Being the first step in potentially helping my callers felt impactful. I spoke with a demographic of people about struggles and experiences which I have not experiences myself. Because of the vast types of people who would reach out to us with little to no resources, this experience was eye opening and humbling.
I grew from this experience in various ways. I learned to compartmentalize my work, as well as empathize yet not become attached to clients whom I may never speak with again. As a Spanish speaker, I was assigned to mostly Spanish-speaking clients. This initially posed as a challenge since my Spanish skills were colloquial rather than technical. I learned to be proficient in legal terminology to be able to best serve clients.
Overall, the internship was rewarding, challenging and eye-opening. I am so thankful to have been able to participate in the internship program and build relationships with other interns, paralegals, and supervisors. I have gained valuable communication, interpersonal, and professional skills which I will continue to use.
This is part of a series of posts by recipients of the 2022 Career Services Summer Funding Grant. We’ve asked funding recipients to reflect on their summer experiences and talk about the industries in which they spent their summer. You can read the entire series here.
