Policy Meets World

I stayed in Udaipur, India, which is one of the smaller cities in Rajasthan surrounded by three lakes, adorned with winding streets, alluring scents, luxurious hotels, breathtaking palaces, and vibrant colors on every corner. Our group stayed at the Indian Institute of Management where we engaged in Management and Development classes, as well as multiple local village stays. The purpose of the program was to introduce us to field research in rural India where we had the opportunity to provide a needs assessment to a local NGO. Along with one Indian graduate student and one Indian business professional, I was paired up with Jatan Sanasthan, a local NGO that focused on integrated development of villages in the area. The NGO had four main initiatives: awareness campaigns and advocacy for improvement in maternal health and social accountability; capacity building and empowerment of elected women representatives; dissemination of quality education for adolescent youth; and integrated village advancement.

Sunset over Udaipur, India.

Our Duke group stayed at the institute's dorms (or what they locally call "hostels") where we had communal showers with no cold water, no air conditioning, poor internet connection, and where lizards frequented our rooms. However, the Duke group quickly adapted, became close friends with our Indian counterparts, and each night ended up having mini-social events in each other’s rooms while getting ready for next day's class. We had a chance to explore the city under the scorching sun and even get caught in the first monsoon of the season. We trekked through forts, got lost in the winding streets, and occasionally got sick (as expected!) from eating the alluring street food from the city's vendors. We took countless rides in auto rickshaws while watching everyday life in Udaipur flash before us. We learned how to bargain efficiently after paying too much for tunics (or kurtas), get the best rate for taxis, and even joined an Instagram photo walk with other eager photographers from across India. Almost like the scenes out of Best Exotic Merigold Hotel, Udaipur and its surrounding areas were nothing short of breathtaking and it is only when you truly immerse yourself in a new culture and let nothing faze you that you can truly appreciate it.

Exploring, exploring, and more exploring the temples outside Udaipur!

I was fortunate to experience India not just by visiting tourist sites and frequenting heritage tours. The India Program enabled me to immerse myself in the rural culture and understand how Indian society works on a local and tribal level. The village where my team and I conducted field research was located on the foothills of a mining facility. With unregulated mining for nearly 16 years in proximity of Sindesar Khurd village, the local population currently faces many issues, including environmental degradation, threat to life due to mining blasts, unregulated toxic dumping, qualitative-quantitative decimation of water resources (groundwater and traditional water harvesting structures), and depletion of air and soil quality. During my three village visits that ranged from 3 days to 7 days, I interacted with residents, who despite their troubles, opened their homes to us and offered what very little they had in hopes to gain support from the local NGO. During our visit, we even witnessed a protest that was organized by the local residents employed in the mine, demanding work and freer access to public infrastructure.

Local children in Sindesar Khurd

Despite the accumulating issues observed in Sindesar Khurd, our assessment of the village's needs did not line up with Jatan's resources. The solutions that the residents requested were not easily and quickly solved. After submitting our final report to the program and to the local NGO, my team and I could only recommend a solution that aimed to resolve the high educational dropout rate of the village's youth. Despite the many issues we observed, we could not solve the most pressing ones. However, Jatan's emerging presence in Sindesar Khurd could lead to the emergence of new solutions and developments in the near future. Becoming a part of such process was an invaluable and humbling lesson. India teaches you to expect anything, especially kindness, hospitality, and curiosity. If you are to return the favor, get ready for an experience like no other.

The League of Conservation Voters (LCV) is a non-profit environmental advocacy organization that supports legislation in areas including climate change, water, public lands, and clean energy. As a policy and lobbying intern for LCV, I was not only able to gain a policy expertise in assigned issue areas, but learned how to put that expertise into action when concerning federal legislation.

There was a whole lot of work to do this summer for LCV. Three major Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rules on climate change, water, and ozone were being finalized, permitting for arctic oil drilling by Shell was still on the table and anti-environmental bills were floating through Congress. To rally support for pro-environmental legislation and gather opposition for anti-environment bills, I was involved in writing blogs, letters to the editor and an opposition letter, as well as calling legislative staff to sign letters going to the White House.

Interns were also heavily involved in the preparation for LCV’s annual lobby day, in which representatives from state LCV leagues fly to Washington DC to speak with their representatives and senators on legislative priorities. This year’s lobby day was the largest ever, with participation from over 25 state leagues and over 100 scheduled legislative meetings. Interns were in charge of creating factsheets and compiling customized information packets for all participants and Senate and House offices.

During lobby day, interns also participated with lobbying in the congressional meetings. It was especially an honor to speak with Senators Boxer and Feinstein from my home state of California. Being environmental champions, it was great to hear about the work they were achieving both on the state and federal level. It was also interesting to hear what roadblocks they were encountering and strategizing on how to overcome them. I learned that lobbying is just as much about listening as it is about talking. It is vital to know the priorities, perspectives, and obstacles of legislators, as well as their constituencies, to bridge information gaps.

Following this exciting day on Capitol Hill was a Capital Dinner event for LCV’s education fund that included prominent environmental champions Senators Chuck Schumer, Harry Reid and Brian Schatz. EPA Administrator, Gina McCarthy, gave the keynote speech and passionately voiced the importance of environmental action for public health and economic vitality. She was even kind enough to come say hi to the interns after her speech.

LCV interns with EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy 

Lobbying at its core is about relationship building, and not the type you see on House of Cards involving blackmail and bribes. It’s about finding the positions and priorities of others that overlap with your own; it's about leveraging constituency support, the media, and coalitions; and it's about cultivating a give-and-take relationship to further mutually beneficial goals. Being in Washington DC and interning at LCV gave me the opportunity to learn new skill sets, meet interesting people and contribute to causes I believe in. I couldn't have asked for a better summer.

For my summer internship, I had the opportunity to work for Delivery Associates, a government-consulting firm founded by Sir Michael Barber, the former head of Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit during Tony Blair’s second term. My work in the firm brought me to London, where the main office is located, and to Lahore, where the firm is assisting the Government of Punjab in their reform initiatives. In addition, I had the chance to visit Geneva for a one-week course on Global Social Innovation track, as part of the Duke Geneva Program.

As a big enthusiast in social innovation, I always find “social innovation” a big buzzword in the development world. The bureaucratic nature of big development agencies, such as the United Nations agencies, makes innovation in development perceived as an oxymoron. During my course-week in Geneva, I found some evidence to counter this perception. For instance, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees has been working together with Ikea Foundation to create housing units or transitional shelters that provide better living conditions to the refugees. The innovation was developed through a human-centered design approach by a multi-stakeholders collaboration. In addition, UNHCR is also setting up innovation labs, innovation fellows, and an innovation fund to encourage more of this innovation. Unfortunately, this kind of work is rare and uncommon in other UN agencies.

I had the chance to learn more about innovation in government during the first half of my internship in London, as one of my main tasks was to write a study case about the application of science of delivery, or deliverology, in Indonesia. For this work, I had to research  the essential steps to enable program delivery by the government to its citizens, about which you can learn more in Barber’s new book “How to Run a Government: So That Citizens Benefit and Taxpayers Don’t Go Crazy”. If you want to learn practical guidance on policy strategy and implementation, I highly recommend this book.

Meeting Sir Michael Barber in his old office at 10 Downing Street

Barber constructed the framework on delivery in his 57 Rules. Most of these steps are straightforward: Setting SMART (Specific, Measurable, Ambitious, Realistic, Time-bound) targets that can be cascaded through the delivery chain; continuously tracking implementation using data, trajectory, and routine stocktaking; and solving problems and crises as they arise. I found these theories an important complement to other theories that I learnt in class.

The opportunity to see how all of these theories can be applied in the real world arose when I arrived in Lahore during the second-half of my internship. I am tasked to assist the Special Monitoring Unit of the Punjab Chief Minister’s Office to develop a solid waste management strategy. As the biggest province in Pakistan, where more than 100 million people live and produce waste everyday, Punjab needs to improve its capacity for waste collection and disposal. The urban areas alone produce 12,300 tons of solid waste each day.

Working with colleagues in the Special Monitoring Unit at Lahore

During my 4 week assignment, I am using the theoretical framework that I learnt in class, such as the cost-benefit analysis from Prof “Sunny” Ladd’s class and the sustainable project management from Prof Lethem. I now realize the long, hard work in spreadsheets exercises and statistical analysis was an important training ground for number-crunching data processing work in a real consulting job. Most importantly, I found the writing skills that I learnt from the courses to be highly valuable in communicating my results.

If I had to give another title for my experience this summer, I would do a cheesy attempt to copy Elizabeth Gilbert’s bestselling book titled “Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India, and Indonesia”. The reason is that I cannot help myself but to think that my summer internship experience in the United Kingdom, Switzerland, and Pakistan has been as much life changing as Julia Roberts’ in the movie. My story, however, is not much an adventure to rediscover myself, but more of a journey to rediscover how to put policy theory into practice.

This summer, I have been honored and privileged to work for a Federal agency in Washington, DC. The U.S. Federal Government has more than two million employees - some work in offices, some at parks, some deep in mines, and some developing the next manned mission to space.  At my agency, we are one very small part of that immense machine - in fact the world’s largest organization.  We pilot this machine and ensure that the machine is as effective at supporting the American people as it can be.  The machine is unwieldy and frequently breaks down.  It is also expensive to operate - so expensive that every man, woman, and child would be out tens of thousands of dollars each year if a flat tax was imposed on the public.  Yes, the Federal Government is, in many ways, a rusty old contraption constantly in need of an overhaul.  But, for all its faults, it is also a remarkable and worthy endeavor - an endeavor full of dedicated and bright public servants - folks with whom I have been proud to work alongside for the past few months.

For me, this all rings true now, but if six months ago you asked me to tell you my perceptions of working for the Federal Government, I wouldn’t have been nearly as effusive.  To tell you the truth, despite having family members who have worked in public service for decades, my assumptions regarding a career in the Federal Government were decidedly mixed.  On the one hand, I figured it would be great to be a part of change on a large scale.  But, on the other hand, being a part of such a large bureaucracy made Federal Service seem a bit less attractive.  Nonetheless, when I got a call this Spring asking me to come up for an interview, I jumped at the chance and every step I have taken since then has reaffirmed my faith in our public sector institutions and the capacity of the lone individual to make meaningful change - even among a crowd of 2.2 million colleagues.

As an intern with the Federal Government, you are truly a valued member of the team and, depending on your agency and division, are given real responsibility and significant assignments.  In this short 10 weeks, I have had direct influence on policies that will affect tens, if not hundreds of millions of people and have made meaningful connections with some of the most influential and brilliant policymakers in the country. My supervisors have given me both autonomy and have been willing to guide me through thorny patches - have pushed me to test my boundaries and the boundaries of policymaking and have advised me when to pull back - they have given me the opportunity to put economic reasoning to work solving real, intractable policy problems, and have shown me kindness when I felt overwhelmed.

All in all, the biggest lesson I have learned, and one I hope to instill in others, is the capacity of the Federal Bureaucracy to make enormous and beneficial impacts for the American people.  Laws passed out of Congress are really only blueprints for the policies that touch our lives.  In fact, the rubber meets the road in the rulemaking process, where agencies spell out how they will implement Congress’ will and make other discretionary decisions, within the limits of the law, to further the goals of the Administration.  Ensuring the best policies make it down the pipeline are armies of civil servants, political officials, and, yes, even interns, who pour over the fine print to ensure, to the extent humanly possible, the benefits of regulation outweigh the costs.

As I wrap up my experience here, I really have no idea what comes next.  Depending on where my life takes me, I may end up back in DC or doing something very different in a city a thousand miles away.  But, what I know now is that the experience of working for 10 weeks in the Federal Government has been one that I would not have traded for the world.  Rock on.

First, and probably most striking, is that members are rarely on the floor while the House is in session unless they are actually speaking, or if there is a vote. This means that all of those passionate floor speeches televised by CSPAN are not riling up a room full of representatives, but rather, are being delivered to a huge empty chamber. The next time you see a member on the floor with a big diagram board or spouting particularly fiery rhetoric, remember he or she is actually just speaking to one of their staffers and maybe the member who is due to speak next.

So if members aren’t on the floor, how do they know when to vote? This brings me to my second point, the whole Capitol complex (the Capitol itself and the surrounding congressional and Senate office buildings connected via underground tunnels) still communicates via a series of bells and lights fixed to analog clocks. Members of Congress are often taking meetings in their offices while the House is in session, so they rely on the bells to tell them when a vote is called. The number of rings or lights signify how much time is left to vote. At any point throughout the day, a series of bells could sound, causing members to flood out of their offices, through the tunnels, to the appropriate chamber of the Capitol to log their vote. Occasionally, one might be treated to, as I was, watching a senior representative (not my Congressman, who has excellent staff that keeps him on time) literally run through the tunnels to vote, having lost track of time in a particularly interesting hearing. Although newcomers to the Hill (as I was just 9 short weeks ago) might be startled by a loud signal they assume could only mean the building is being evacuated, the bell system lives on.

When not orating to an abyss or taking a casual jog through tunnels to vote, members might be attending one of a vast number of events happening on the Hill each day. Beyond the actual operation of government, there are briefings and guest speakers, receptions and events, constituent tours and movie screenings, that a member might be hosting or attending. Just for the summer interns alone, there was a speaker almost every single day (about which I will post at another time). In one day, a member of Congress’ schedule could include anything from an early morning Democrat/Republican congressional baseball team practice, to a classified foreign affairs hearing, to an evening event hosted by the Congressional Rock and Roll Caucus (google it, this really exists, again topic for the next post). This is all in a day’s work on the Hill for your elected representatives.

The technology that goes into the app is really quite amazing, and it actually won two prizes at the Hackathon in Shanghai. Sadly, I have no more than an elementary understanding of how it works, so I'll just get into the stuff that I actually know about. Justin, the other intern, and I have been working on a promotional video that will be shown to NGOs and possibly government authorities. Photo Missing Child is based in Shanghai, so I was there for about week working on the ground with the team there. The video raises awareness about human trafficking in general and also demonstrates how Microsoft's app can help law enforcement and other organizations return children to their families and catch perpetrators. Tim, our boss, really liked it, so the video may even be used in Beijing.

Human trafficking, unfortunately, is one of those issues in China that is difficult to address because it come a little too close to criticizing the government. China's one child policy is often blamed for causing the demand for trafficked women and children. As a result, the Chinese government can be very unfriendly towards NGOs or other organizations working on the issue. Another obstacle is the fact that people are highly reluctant to talk about sex trafficking, particularly when it involves children. The subject is virtually taboo. Of course, no one likes to admit that such horrific crimes actually occur in their country. Much of the silence around the subject also stems from the more conservative attitudes towards sex in Asia.

As a result, Justin and I had to fight pretty hard to make a video that we felt accurately reflected the depth of the problems that we were working on. It was definitely a learning experience; I felt like I walked away with a much better understanding of modern Chinese culture and what is required to work productively here. There is a real cultural gap. It isn't insurmountable, but it exists and it goes deeper that I first imagined. It's something that really affects the workplace, even though Microsoft is very much an American company.

It will be interesting to see what our guests next week think about it. Microsoft's Digital Crimes Unit is hosting a congressional delegation, and I will be responsible for giving them a tour. I'm actually very interested in hearing their perspective on digital crimes and cybersecurity, especially since it's become such a hot topic recently. With Presidents Obama and Xi meeting in September, I imagine that both governments will be gearing up for some heavy discussion. I'm curious to hear what both parties have to say come September.

I'm afraid I have no photos this time as my phone was stolen in Shanghai, but I'll be sure to post some when I get the chance. Til next time!

In an effort to not derail on a philosophical tangent so quickly, I’ll get specific. This summer, I spent six weeks in India where I studied development and conducted research in a rural village in Rajasthan. I traveled…a lot. I sat in our village center and watched the locals herd the malnourished water buffalo for literally hours. I laid on the roof and studied the galaxy with my teammates Kriti and Ekta. I played cricket, football, and climbed a ton of forts and mango trees. I shared my drinking water with a water buffalo, I unofficially married two women, saw the Taj Mahal, and built a rather noteworthy tolerance to spicy food.

For those that haven’t been, India is India. Everything you have heard about it is true. It is hot, crowded, and I spent a large portion of my days fighting off whatever stomach virus my last meal awarded me. All things considered, India is an AWESOME country with a culture deeper and stronger than any place I’ve ever been.

Every time I travel, I heavily assess my experience in the country by the kindness of the people. In the “Chris Burnett ranking of the world’s nicest people,” India ties for first (right next to Costa Rica [I find Costa Ricans just delightful]). Everyone was extremely welcoming, trusting, and generous. In the village I studied, people seemed to share a committed or accepted sense of poverty, even though the status quo appeared gravely insufficient.

My team! Ekta (left) Kriti (right)

So why was I there? Well, I worked with a local NGO that supports migrant workers. Migration is a major issue that commonly results in poor labor conditions but essential to the Indian economy. I’ll skip over the details here but at a high level, the organization’s mission is to provide a more dignified life for migrant workers. I am still not quite sure what “dignified” really means to them though: more money, stronger security, better heath, all of the above? Regardless, my group chose to educate and empower the wives of migrant laborers (If you want to learn more about the project, reach out and we can chat over coffee).

Our team conducting research in the village of Royada

Will my internship lead to a subsequent job opportunity? Doubtfully. Do I care? Not at all. To me, graduate school isn’t purely about classes and irrationally competitive job prospects post-graduation. It is about experiences and becoming more self-aware. India made me more self-aware. This internship forced me to just chill and feel the wind or watch the sunset, commonly uncherished pleasures many of us have illogically deemed too time-consuming.

The group at the ancient fort of Kumbhalgarh - (The Great Wall of India)

Even though I plan to concentrate in national security at Duke, my internship wasn’t completely misaligned with my professional goals. One day I hope to leverage what I learned to build the international development capabilities of DoD and support some sort of post-conflict reconstruction effort. I learned a lot about development during my coursework as well (many thanks to Professor Krishna for building and offering such a fantastic program) and I am confident these skills will translate quite well later in life.

Hiking at Mount Abu

To sum it up, India can terrify even the most experienced but uninitiated traveler. Nothing can prepare you for the aggressive line cutting, "ambitious" driving, or the obstacles of littered cow dung. However, I would encourage everyone to overlook these minor challenges, for buried within all of this madness lies rich culture, breathtaking sights, unimaginable architecture, and fantastic people.

Does Indonesia not sound familiar? The country is made up of Java, Sumatra, Bali, most of Borneo, half of New Guinea, and more or less 17,000 other islands scattered across Southeast Asia. It is home to the world’s largest Muslim population, the second longest coastline, and the third largest democracy. For centuries, locals and foreigners have made their fortunes here trading commodities like spices, tea, and textiles. Today Indonesia exports petroleum products, palm oil, rubber, and precious metals. These last few bring us to the province of Central Kalimantan on the island of Borneo—the place I have called home since May.

People here call Borneo the “Earth’s lungs” and, sadly, they are in poor shape. Indonesia has burned through much of its generous endowment of natural resources; only about a quarter of its primary rainforests remain. Aside from being economically unsustainable, this consumption pattern contributes to climate change.

Deep in Central Kalimantan, changing land use is contributing to deforestation and climate change.

About half of Indonesia’s forest fires occur on big palm oil and logging plantations, meant to clear land for the profitable commodities. These fires contribute to a giant “brown cloud” of air pollution hovering over Southeast Asia, which causes billions of dollars in damage annually due to its effects on health, agriculture, and business. The fires also strip forests of their ability to provide clean air and water, fertile soil, service floods, control droughts, and regulate for climatic stability. Further, the fires burn up peatland releasing greenhouse gasses, thus contributing to the increase of the global average temperature. The World Resources Institute calls stabilizing the global climate “the greatest challenge of the 21st century.”

Restoring the Earth’s lungs is no small task. It requires a multilateral approach that includes civil society, government, and the private sector. I intend to see how this partnership works during my summer internship with—get ready for the acronyms—the United Nations Office for REDD+ Coordination in Indonesia, or UNORCID. The Office is the UN System’s national hub for its climate change mitigation program known as Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation, or the UN-REDD Programme. UNORCID provides the Government of Indonesia and its counterparts from UN agencies, funds and programs, and all stakeholders, with technical expertise and assistance in formulating domestic policies that align with economic and environmental goals.

My first experience with environmental problems comes from a jungle trek on Java a few years back. I was working as a teacher with the Peace Corps at the time. As the trail ended, the ferns and banana leaves gave way to an ominous view of a whole mountainside razed to the ground. An acquaintance explained that the timber had been sold on the black market and that this would disrupt the local village’s economy. Before this, I had never imagined the extent of climate change’s reach, the complexity of social and economic factors at play, or how policy makers might even begin to address these problems.

My time with UNORCID has immersed me in this new policy world. As an intern at one of UNORCID’s pilot provinces, I get to see first-hand how Indonesia is reducing greenhouse gas emissions and improving forest management. One of the new initiatives we are preparing is the Sustainable Bioenergy Programme. Through this program, Indonesia will reduce its dependence on oil for energy. To replace oil, it will develop renewable energy from agricultural byproducts like sugarcane and coconut husks. At this stage, I am contributing research to a feasibility study. The program will be replicated in other provinces after the pilot phase. Another project we are working on is the Seasonal Fire Early Warning System. It is a web-hosted service that district governments can use to anticipate fires and mitigate negative impacts. UNORCID co-hosted a launch event for the program and training sessions earlier this month. In addition to these projects, I have written policy briefs on international climate finance and renewable energy.

Here I am on a visit to Indonesia's State Energy Company to collect data for the feasibility study.

Perhaps like many other interns, I have spent most of my summer at a desk. I share an office with two other interns and a few UN staff. It’s a small, collegial environment. When not at work, we meet for coffee and meals. During the month of Ramadan, we met after work to break the fast with our Muslim colleagues.

The job structure at GAO reminds me of the 804 consulting project.  For those of you who aren’t familiar, the 804 project pairs a team of four Sanford graduate students with a client to work on a policy issue.  There are some minor differences though. GAO’s clients are members of Congress and projects can last more than a few short months!

What’s it like working here? Well, I can tell you no two days are the same.  My days are filled with data analysis, interviews, team meetings, reading, writing and even a visit to the Pentagon.  Interns at GAO are made to feel like part of the team, instead of being tasked busy work.  So far, I have been able to take the lead on analyzing two sets of data for the final report.  For someone who loves details, GAO is a haven! GAO analysts carefully document every interview and check published reports line by line for accuracy.

Living in Washington, DC has been one new experience after another.  I grew up on the East Coast (Philly!) but never spent more than a few hours in DC.  My favorite places to visit have been the art museums and the food scene (mostly in Chinatown and Adams Morgan).  I even found a unique piece of art left for free on a front stoop!

Other than the weather shock, a lot has happened since I've began my internship – from participating in the celebration at the Gay Pride Parade (so much color everywhere) to enjoying the live orchestra rendition of Frank Sinatra and Billy Joel songs during the Independence Day “Boston Pops Firework Spectacular” concert and firework show (again, so much color and pyrotechnic explosions everywhere) on the Esplanade facing the Charles River and Cambridge city skyline. As for the food, Flour, a bakery 5 minutes away from BMC with the longest lines yet best sandwiches, apple spice snacking cakes and chocolate meringue clouds, is my go-to place during lunch on a weekly basis. Upon recommendation from my supervisor, I ventured out of my comfort zone and tried Ethiopian cuisine for the first time from Lucy Café while enjoying Lega Tibs (a spicy beef and vegetable dish) and peanut tea.

Beautiful (and exotic) tea-making jars and decorations

During my first week interning at BMC, I met my supervisor, Courtney, got my intern badge, went to orientation, and received a tour of the Shapiro building (which has a beautiful landscape view of Boston’s South End) including the Adult Primary Care suites where I’ll be focusing much of my energy and time throughout the summer. The different suites serve a diverse socioeconomic and ethnic range of patients, from refugees to substance abuse high-risk patients, further validating BMC’s motto: “Exceptional Care without Exception.” During that same week, I was able to meet the other MDs, nurses, medical assistants and managers, despite their hectic day-to-day schedules, and gradually became a familiar (face) member of the practice.

The scenery while walking to work on broken, sometimes wobbly and crooked cobblestone alleys and streets.

“So be sure when you step, step with care and great tact. And remember that life's A Great Balancing Act."  ― Dr. Seuss, Oh, The Places You'll Go!

(Never have these words been any more relevant, literally)

My usual day consists of coming into my very own office-like area at 8am (with tons of coffee and apple snacking spice cake pumping through my body), running around and taking notes from one meeting to another, and working on the data analysis, design process, tracking sheets, literature review and current state assessment for various primary care transformation projects until 5pm (if not later). With the recent policy changes in the national healthcare system and BMC’s transition to EPIC (a widely used Electronic Health Record software), the two main projects I’ve been working on with Courtney and the other strategy and management team members includes nursing workflows and the VNA forms process redesign.

Furthermore, Courtney has been completely amazing and one of the best supervisors (and the nicest person) I’ve ever met. Just last Saturday, she invited Nadia, another Primary Care intern working with the population health team, and I, along with other fellow coworkers, over to her house for an outdoor dinner party and introduced us to her family (and newly completed, absolutely gorgeous, patio). During the first two weeks, she also took me to the monthly BMC Leadership for Change networking event and the annual Be Exceptional Awards, where I met other outstandingly bright associates from various departments and higher-up leadership and management (as well as a handful of intimidating yet passionate ex-McKinsey consultants). So far, my experience interning at BMC has been a never-ending progression of excitement along with the huge learning curve. While I continue to mature, expanding my knowledge about health policy and immersing myself in the current, vibrant healthcare landscape, I look forward to all the challenges and projects I’ll get to work on and add value to throughout the summer.

Also looking forward to my future adventures around Boston (so I can feel less like a hermit and finally have a catharsis from crossing another thing off my checklist)!

Raleigh is awesome. It’s got all of the charm of a city, yet it’s not overwhelming and of course, it’s got that Southern charm. Growing up in NYC and spending most of my life there, being here in Raleigh for the summer has been a refreshing change. I love the slower pace of life, the random and intense fleeting summer storms, and I’ve loved having down time to explore. After the first few weeks of not knowing what to do with my free time and constantly thinking I had something due, I finally started to relax. Being in the Capital District for work, it seems like I’m really close to everything in Raleigh. I’ve discovered the best Thai food I’ve had so far in the Triangle at a place called Bida Manda, a block away from my internship. I’ve added a nearby ice cream shop called Treat to my list of all-time favorite ice cream places. They serve local ice cream made in Chapel Hill. It’s delicious! There’s also a great farmer’s market every Wednesday that we all go to for lunch. I also loved checking out the Natural Science and Natural History museums as well as the State Legislature and State Capitol. There’s also a ton of Civil War trails too.

So about that internship…It’s been pretty great! During my first few weeks back in May, I was researching current policy debates and reports on the solar and renewable energy industries. I read tons of articles on the economic and public health benefits of renewable energy in North Carolina. I did a little data analysis tracking net generation and revenue of solar farms in NC as well as tracking private/public investment, average cost savings, and the revenue from NC’s renewable energy industry. While doing all of this research, it was amazing how many times I relied on concepts that I’ve learned at Sanford. While reading through cost-benefit analyses for renewable energy projects, discount rates and net present values were popping up! Turns out it was all really useful after all!

I also did a comparative analysis of state policies on solar energy and Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Portfolio Standards (REPS standards) in different states. REPS standards are basically a state’s goals on how much of their energy should come from renewable sources. Currently, NC requires 6% of its energy to come from renewable sources with a goal of 12.5% by 2020.

North Carolina State Legislature

There is an ongoing battle in the State Legislature to freeze REPS at its current level and let the state’s Renewable Energy Tax Credit (RETC) expire, both of which would cripple the growing solar economy in NC. NCLCV is part of a campaign to prevent this from happening. So I pretty much got a crash course on solar- I’ve read up on qualifications for different solar jobs, what goes into building a solar farm, the different sectors involved, and how policies have impacted renewable energy generation in different states. It’s fascinating how much goes into building a solar farm-from financing to construction to development, and it’s an effort that involves businesses in various sectors.

In these last few weeks, I’ve used the information I’ve gathered to create factsheets for targeted advocacy campaigns. I’ve created a factsheet highlighting public health impacts from nonrenewables. I’ve also created a factsheet highlighting a local solar farm and the different sectors that worked together on the project. I’m currently working on an infographic highlighting the benefits of clean energy investment in NC and writing my first email action alert.

I’ve also had some great networking opportunities through NCLCV. During my first week, I helped out with a fundraiser at Carolina Beach in Wilmington. It was such a great town, and I can’t wait to go back for another visit. It was a laid-back atmosphere being so close to the beach and meeting people from local coastal towns. I also helped out at NCLCV’s annual Green Tie Awards at the Natural Science Museum in downtown Raleigh. At this event, NCLCV honors legislators with good conservation records. I got to meet a few house representatives and state senators as well as individuals from other environmental organizations. I also got to participate in a few lobbying days at the NC General Assembly to lobby representatives on conservation legislation (easier said than done…).

So what have I learned from all of this? 1- I feel like I know much more about solar energy than I thought possible. 2-One of the main things I’ve gotten out of this internship is that breaking down dense policies and communicating them to a wider audience truly is an art (and a difficult one at that). You can get so bogged down in tiny details from reports. After many editing sessions with the communications team at NCLCV, I’d like to think I’ve gotten better at plainspoken language versus using overly academic terms. 3- Most importantly, I’ve learned about the importance of effectively communicating policy issues to a wider audience, which is instrumental in affecting policy outcomes. You can have a great public policy, but if you don’t build support for it via coalition groups, then it’s not worth much (Nick Carnes’ class much?). So overall, I’ve worked with incredibly hard-working people who are passionate about what they do and I’ve learned a lot during my short time here.

Summer Sunset (In case any of you miss Durham!)

I’ve got to say it’s also been great hanging around Durham a bit more too. With everyone spread out for their internships, I wondered what post-Sanford life in Durham would be like. I’ve been spending breezy, warm days at Duke Gardens, trying out new recipes, getting hooked on Game of Thrones, binge watching Friends on Netflix, and reading a lot. Trips to NYC and DC to visit family and friends have also been great. I look forward to really getting a break in a few weeks and road tripping it down to Charleston and Savannah with my family before heading home to Queens. It’s been such an awesome summer. I miss you all and I hope you’re doing great life-changing things and enjoying your summers!!

----> Why Congress? Aren’t you the oldest Congressional intern alive?! Ask seven MPP students what they want out of their internship this summer, and you’re likely to get seven different answers. Personally, I particularly wanted the opportunity to see something I’ve never seen before. Coming from the military, I’ve never gotten the chance to spend any time around Congress – so I pushed hard for this placement in the House. Yes, I’m the oldest Congressional intern alive.

----> What’s the internship like? The internship started out as a strange but exciting blend of work and school. I was able to research a ton of different topics (from Haiti to PTSD, veteran suicide, the refugee crises in Iraq and Syria, and appropriations—and basically any/everything else in between), but there are still some of the downtimes and lulls that you often find in government jobs.

The high point, though, was when I was tasked to work on the Defense Appropriations bill in June. I first read the bill and pointed out a few things to the staffers - their previous amendment barring man-portable air defense systems, or MANPADS, to Syria was included in the base bill—a major win. Then, they allowed me to pitch some ideas for amendments—which they surprisingly and graciously accepted—and those amendments ultimately were successful, adopted into the House-passed bill.

I know that DC is where “How a Bill Becomes a Law” is set, but someone needs to make a “How an Amendment is Made and Proposed” cartoon. There are a surprising number of offices you have to run your amendment by (they’re all groups of lawyers with excellent names like the Parliamentarians and the Legislative Council) before even checking with the Congressional Budget Office to get their take on the “outlay” (don’t ask) of your amendment moving money from one defense account to another. I also learned what an “open rule” is, and how your Congressman has to be ready to go to the floor and insert his/her amendment where applicable, as the whole bill is being read out loud. Not to mention, I learned the importance of co-sponsors and a strange in-House system of e-Dear Colleague letters (Dear Colleague, please co-sponsor my amendment on four-day work weeks…). Those are just a few of the highlights of that memo-, talking point-, e-mail-, and phone-filled period.

Procedures and communication strategies aside, that 14-hour day encompasses the whole point of this internship for me. Not every moment has to be meaningful (that’s for you, Ashley)—you just have to be open to learning a few things that you’ve never been exposed to before. Nowhere else but in DC can you meet the Israeli Ambassador to the United States one day, research water security the next, turn around and write a draft bill, and then celebrate that a particular amendment was passed.

I don't know why, but I think the underground tunnels are the coolest.

All that being said, after being around Congress for a month or so, I definitely appreciate that my experience could have been completely different had I been placed with another Congressman and another set of permanent staffers. Because the office that I’m in for the summer understands where my interests lie, they have been amazing at making sure I’m included in the national security, defense, and international relations-related topics going on in the office.

----> Blah, blah, blah. Isn’t DC in the summer hot, crowded, and gross? Is there anything fun? Another priceless part of being in DC for the summer is being able to participate in the extracurriculars. Just in the past two weeks, I’ve pretended to be an extrovert and went to three—count them, THREE—Duke in DC events: a breakfast with Congressman Lipinksi, an American Grand Strategy networking event with Professor Feaver, and a ridiculously amazing Women’s Forum event with the Secretary of the Air Force and the Deputy Director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, among others.

While the issue of police brutality has recently become a hot topic of racial justice, one less-often discussed and less visible racial issue is the school-to-prison-pipeline, or STPP. This disturbing national trend entails teachers, administrators, and school resource officers using "zero-tolerance" policies to criminalize minor infractions, leading to children getting fast-tracked into the criminal justice system. The philosophy of zero-tolerance, by definition, is that lesser offenses should be treated just as harshly as more serious ones, to bring the point home that a small infraction is still an infraction. Paradoxically, this attitude often serves to delegitimize school administrative authority in the eyes of schoolchildren, so it doesn’t get them to behave better. This type of justice is also handed out very differently depending on the student’s race and disability status, presenting serious civil liberties issues.

The former program director at the ACLU of Eastern Missouri wrote a report on St. Louis’s STPP in 2011, and, using that as a guide, I’ve dug into finding people to talk to about Kansas City, Missouri’s STPP. So far I’ve talked to the district’s student discipline officer, a few school resource officers, someone who supervises SROs, and the director of the district’s Student Intervention Program. I’ve also done less exciting things like glean data from the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education website (like dropout rates by race), and try to convince the district to send me data that they don’t post, probably with good reason (like suspension and expulsion rates by race).

In addition to research on Kansas City’s STPP, I’ve also gotten to participate in some community events like attending the Missouri ACLU’s annual membership meeting and tabling at the Kansas City PrideFest.

Kaitlyn “Kayn” Knieb, the Campus Outreach intern, and I at PrideFest.

One of the more poignant messages on a T-shirt for sale at PrideFest: “Be careful who you hate. It could be someone you love.”

While the research itself can seem slow and can be frustrating, there are many perks to calling Kansas City, and the ACLU, home for the summer. In addition to being with my boyfriend, Nicolas, I get to work with impressive ACLU employees Sarah Rossi and Mustafa Abdullah (a high school friend from Winston-Salem, NC). The two of them managed to kill a bill in the Missouri legislature that was similar to Indiana's Religious Freedom Restoration Act. They’re impressive advocates for civil liberties and I’m lucky to get to work with them.

I’ve also greatly appreciated working with so many like-minded people. In our little intern corner, we often commiserate about, among other things, the antics of Kansas’s governor Sam Brownback (for the moment, the ACLU of Missouri and the ACLU of Kansas share an office), the high bar of what constitutes cruel and unusual punishment, and the challenges of discussing race among our white friends. I’ve greatly enjoyed working with them. Office work has never been less dull.

I hope everyone else is also having a great summer, and I can’t wait to see you all again in the fall!

My summer internship consists of participatory action field research to better understand the ways in which smallholder coffee farmers in Guatemala are adapting to climate change. My work during this summer builds up on research conducted last summer, which entailed research on perceptions of climate change and developed several recommendations for coffee communities throughout the tropics. Our point of contact is Coordinadora de Organizaciones de Desarrollo de Concepción Huista (CODECH), a second level coop that exports organic and conventional coffee to France, Spain and the United States.

Coffee grown in the mountains.  

Luckily for us, the Sunday right after our arrival, the cooperative held a meeting with the leaders. We presented last year’s results and discussed the adaptation strategies with the co-op leaders. After the discussion of last year’s results with CODECH, we narrowed down the recommendations to 5. We spent the first weeks conducting interviews with co-op leaders and coffee producers and further narrowed down to three adaptation strategies that the interviewees found the most interesting. Specifically, we are focusing in water collection systems, solar dryers, and income diversification through value added products.

Water collection systems are vital for coffee producers, especially in the after harvest season where water is needed for the washing and fermentation processing of the coffee cherries. In more remote communities, water is very scarce. Surprisingly, there is plenty of rain in the highlands. Therefore, collecting water for future use would be extremely useful for the coffee producers and their families.

Water collection system built by a coffee producer in the Huista highlands. A pipe collects water from the roof into a concrete tank.

Solar dryers are an insulated, raised bed used for drying coffee beans quicker and in a more uniform way. Currently, members lay the beans in the ground for drying, which can difficult quality management. Interestingly enough, CODECH is running a pilot program that will be tested in the next harvest season around January. Therefore, co-op leaders are particularly interested for our research to support their current pilot program so they can evaluate if they should expand to other members of the co-op.

Solar dryer pilot program in collaboration with Latin American and Caribbean Network of Fair Trade Small Producers (CLAC).

Income diversification through value added products in a region where there is fertile land, but also food security issues can also provide better resiliency to climate change through livelihood strengthening. Currently, some members of the community have other sources of income. However, nearly all are interested in finding profitable markets for other products such as avocados, mangos, honey or even dried fruits.

Income diversification by one of the coffee producers.  

Special shout-out to Don Gaspar, the technician from CODECH, that has been very resourceful in helping us progress in our research methods. Don Gaspar (or Cash as he is known in the local Mayan Popti’ language) is also a coffee producer himself, and his expertise and willingness to help has been instrumental in the development of our summer work.

It is amazing the amount of art and science that goes into one cup of coffee. We have had the opportunity to visit some of the parcels to get a better understanding on how coffee is grown, as well as helping in the local nursery where they grow coffee plants used for crop renovations.

Local nursery for coffee crop renovation.

I have spent the first five weeks of my summer mostly between Jacaltenango and Conceción Huista (Huista in Popti’ means hermano - brother). Most of the people, especially men, are bilingual, and can speak their mother language of Popti’ or Mam (Mayan languages) along with Spanish. I am definitely going to miss the country life and the candor of the people in the Guatemalan highlands.

For the following weeks of my summer internship, I will be between Xela, Antigua, and Guatemala City conducting  interviews with NGOs and government officials to get a grasp of the policies that can support climate change adaptation strategies. Working in this project has been an amazing opportunity to get a better understanding how participatory development works on the ground. It has been both interesting and amazing to spend the summer in this coffee grower community, while having the opportunity to meet wonderful people across the country working towards improving living conditions of the communities through training and empowerment.

Happy grasshopper in a coffee leaf.

I did not know what to expect on my first day as an intern on Capitol Hill. I was excited to be in the place where “I’m just a bill” became a law, and I was ready to learn as much as possible. Most of the transition into my internship was easy, but there were definitely a few lessons about working in the Capitol that I had to learn through trial and error.

First, there are “Members Only” elevators reserved for members of Congress. And sometimes, those elevators are only labeled as such on some of the floors. This is one of those “live and learn” moments, to the dismay of the innocent intern who self-consciously assumed the nasty looks in the elevator were correlated to how poorly she held up on her commute in 95 degree heat.

Second, some of the signs that say “authorized personnel only” include me…. and some do NOT.

Third, and most importantly, give in to the fact that you will be lost for at least the first few weeks. Even after tour-guide training, there will still be rooms in hallways in basements that you will need to search for. The place is a marble corn maze, except you definitely cannot set off a flare to get yourself rescued.

One morning, while wandering around the Capitol in a sleepy haze in an attempt to make an 8 am meeting, and found myself alone in the Capitol Rotunda. I realized that although I was hopelessly lost, the magnificence of the Capitol was not lost on me. I stood alone at the very center of the Capitol building, the very center of the entire capitol city, and could never imagine a time when this wouldn’t be truly amazing.

Other aspects of D.C. life are starting to lose their novelty. When I first got to D.C., I was so impressed by how the country’s most important buildings were around every corner. When I saw someone in a suit or pumps rushing down the street, I immediately assumed they are off to do something of great value to society. Now, I am one of those women who swapped her heels for sensible shoes and has an ID badge clipped to her belt loop. As I write this, I am sitting on a bench outside the Lincoln memorial, as if the National Mall is any other park. But the grandeur of the Capitol building has yet to fade.

After a month in Washington, D.C. as an intern on “the Hill”, I have hopes of being a permanent part of this governing machine. I have hopes of helping people and speaking for them and to them in an honest and open way. I have hopes that I can make a difference. And I hope I never become too jaded to appreciate the magnificence of the Capitol.

I should really explain what I’m doing here, shouldn’t I? I’m getting ahead of myself. This summer, I’m interning with Microsoft’s legal department in the Greater China Region. I’ve been working with many different policy issues like Chinese privacy law and US-China relations, particularly in the post-Snowden era. I’m here with good company; my fellow intern, Justin Bryant, and my boss, Tim Cranton, are both Blue Devils. Tim has been absolutely phenomenal. On Saturday, he had Justin and I over to his house for dinner and introduced us to David, his partner, and his two dogs Duncan and Harvey. David and Tim are very well traveled and have been living in Beijing for quite a while now, so they know about all the cool places. I live at the Ascott, a serviced apartment building, and it’s located on Dongzhimen Road, which is buzzing with nightlife and activity.

Recreation aside, Tim has been great about getting us into interesting projects and introducing us all around the office. While I was in Hong Kong, I finished a project on Chinese privacy law and another one on the Copyright Amendment 2014 in Hong Kong, which is a bill that the Hong Kong government wants to pass before election season in 2016. Hong Kong is very behind internationally in terms of copyright law, and this has been a priority for the government for a while now. The last attempt to pass a similar bill was derailed by dissent over the right to parody original works. Essentially, Hong Kong citizens were concerned over the bill because they feared it might suppress free speech. Since then, the government has amended the bill and is now trying to pass it into law again. As an internet service provider and copyright holder, Microsoft is a major stakeholder in the bill, so I was working for Amy, one of the legal team members, on the analysis of the bill.

The other project that I was talking about was a review of Chinese privacy laws, which are sector-specific and not very cohesive. My Chinese was very useful in the project; I’ve been reading a lot of laws in Mandarin. I’m trying to become more fluent. It’s my New Year’s Resolution to be able to read a newspaper in Mandarin Chinese without a dictionary to help me. It’s terribly embarrassing to have to ask Beijing citizens for clarification when I don’t catch a phrase at first, especially since I don’t have the luxury of looking foreign-born. Most of them seem to think I’m a bit slow when it happens. Anyways, those projects have since been completed, and I’m about to start some new ones. I’ve only been here a few days, but I’m already thrilled to be here. Justin and I are starting on a new joint project, and I have another one on cyber breaches to work on as well. I’m trying to be sort of vague here because I had to sign a frightening-looking nondisclosure agreement when I got my employee contract, and I would very much like to stay hired. Anyways, I’ll just say that I’ll be doing a lot of work with cyber-policy in the context of Asia and its growing place in the world.

I’m really excited to be working on these policy projects, especially because many of the people I’m working with come from a different culture than the one I’m accustomed to. As the child of former Chinese nationals, China’s culture and attitudes are at once familiar and strange to me. There are things that I understand well and things that are confusing. China has changed so much in the last decade that even people from my parents’ generation are sometimes just as lost as I am. It’s a fascinating place to be, from both a personal and professional perspective, I can’t emphasize that enough. It feels like I’ve come full circle; my parents left China over 25 years ago to raise me in the US, and now I’ve returned on my own to rediscover it for myself. It’s a whole new world and as I move forward, I hope to reacquaint myself with the place my parents left behind as well.