#dc interns

What would happen if an unpaid intern's lawsuit ended up before the Supreme Court? While the legal outcome of the case isn't necessarily clear, Bloomberg View columnist Jonathan Weil points out that the situation might be a bit awkward, noting: "The Supreme Court has unpaid interns, too."

According to a brochure for the positions, referenced in Weil's column and excerpted above, interns can expect to work full-time for no compensation — except the possibility of a scholarship, received only after the internship is completed and if the student returns to an undergraduate, graduate or professional degree program.

"Someday the justices may have to ask if what's good for the court is also good for the rest of the country," Weil writes. "The example the court is setting speaks volumes already."

The WLP is a national non-profit organization that is developing the next generation of American leadership from the South Asian community. Our program takes promising college students and places them in a Congressional office for an eight-week summer internship accompanied by a structured leadership curriculum. Students then complete a leadership project applying their learning from the summer and are inducted into a leadership community currently made up of 170 alumni from the 15 years of the program.  Former Congressional leader Richard Gephardt has called it “one of the best programs of its kind on the Hill.”

Since 1995, the WLP has given more than 170 South Asian American students the opportunity to intern in Washington, DC. In addition to the internship, participants attend special meetings and events to fully expose them to the South Asian American political Diaspora. Past programs and events have included meetings with South Asian American elected officials, Ambassadors and South Asians who are working in Congress, the federal government and local and state agencies.

If this sounds at all interesting, you should apply. The Washington Leadership Program is a great space to forge connections with other South Asian Americans, get a taste of what it's like to intern in DC, and have access to leaders doing awesome work in their fields. It's one of those programs I wish I had known more about in college.

Stuck in a shitty internship, with a shitty boss, and shitty pay? Shit, maybe you don’t even get paid. That’s real shitty. Feel like quitting but want to make more of a statement? Let’s get your ass fired. Here’s how:

1) Always be late. Don’t set an alarm. Grace the office with your presence whenever you decided to roll out of bed. No need to lose sleep over a shitty internship, anyways. Take an extra fifteen minutes at your lunch time. If they notice, then, oh well.

2) Eat on their dime. Next time you have coffee-bitch duties and have to fetch the java for your lazy-ass superiors, have lunch…on them. They hand you a twenty, you get three coffees, but what would a trustworthy intern do? Give them back their change. Nah, not you. Use the remaining eight bucks for some lunch.  What are you feeling? Burger, sandwich, tacos? Get it.