Week 1:
My First Week Has Been Awesome

June 12, 2020

The day finally arrived when my mom and I were taking the 10 hour journey to Austin, Texas for me to start my internship at Justice for Our Neighbors. Justice for our Neighbors, also known as JFON, is a non-profit pro-bono law firm that focuses on immigration and education to the public about the current immigration status in the U.S. I had nerves all around for multiple reasons to be heading to Austin, the first being that I am doing an internship during the COVID-19 pandemic which is crazy in itself. I had never been to Texas before, and what if my coworkers don’t like me? Pushing these fears from my mind, my mom and I set off to Austin. 

I got a very warm welcome to my apartment, literally, because it is so hot in Texas, but also metaphorically. My roommate is very kind and helpful about learning Austin, the best trails to go to and the best restaurants to order take-out from. I feel very fortunate that I am able to be doing my internship in person with everything currently taking place in the United States. 

My first day at JFON was on June 8th and it was everything I was hoping for and more. I learned so much about immigration court that I did not know. I was able to learn more about Special Immigration Juveniles (SIJ) cases and how current policies are changing immigration law constantly. Not only was I able to learn a lot my first day but my co-workers are very friendly and kind. They have already been so supportive to me and care so much about the work they are doing. We are a small team of only three people plus me. This is due mostly to the fact that we are a non-profit organization. I have always been interested in non-profit work as well as immigration law so I am almost getting the best of both worlds learning how both immigration law works and non-profit works. 

One reason I decided to accept a position in Texas for my internship is because of the large amount of Spanish speakers in Texas. I am majoring in Spanish and have had a passion for speaking Spanish since a young age. Being from a suburb of Kansas City there are not a lot of opportunities to speak Spanish. Here in Austin I have already been given many opportunities to use my Spanish skills. For my first week I have mostly been focusing on translating documents from English to Spanish for clients. This has been great because I love the idea of making all these documents more accessible to others. Additionally, it has kept my mind very awake and alert. Besides translating documents I have been making documents to send out to clients during the pandemic. Because of the pandemic we have to limit the amount of clients in the office, so if they can send things to us digitally or by mail all the better. I have been crafting instructions to send to clients which has been fun and brought out the creative side in me to make the instructions professional, but also fun. 

I have also been taking Spanish classes twice a week over Skype with a professor from Guatemala from the school SISAI that Cornell has a strong relationship with. On Wednesday I spent all day translating and then had a Spanish class. Afterwards I went to make dinner and accidentally started speaking Spanish to my roommate! It is great to know that I am getting the experience of what immigration law looks like and getting to use my Spanish, two strong passions of mine!  

Besides doing my internship I have been exploring Austin (at a COVID friendly distance), reading the Harry Potter series (for the first time!), and studying for the LSAT. Luckily this internship has given me more inspiration to study more for the LSAT. Next week I am looking forward to doing in-depth research for some cases as well as exploring Austin a bit more.