Today, the executive director of the Berkman Center told a room full of interns that based on numbers alone -- people applying versus people accepted -- it's harder to get into a Berkman Center internship then it is to get into Harvard Law.
I think he was only halfway joking.
There's a very diverse bunch here, all of them talented, all of them with unique backgrounds that they'll bring to the range of projects at the center. If I hadn't felt honored to be here before (and I did) I certainly would feel that way now.
Opportunities at the Center
Every Tuesday the Center hosts a lunch with different speakers on Internet-related topics, and if the interns rsvp earlier enough they can join those. I was too late this time, but I will certainly try as often as I can to be part of these.
Interns are also encouraged to make contacts with staff, faculty and fellows with their respective interests. In fact, we were all told specifically that this experience would be what we made it. What contacts we made, who we reached out to, that would all be up to us. I think the practice I've had trying to make contacts over the past semester will come in handy as I try to get in touch with anyone I can affiliated with the center.
One comment in particular struck me, coming from the internship director to a few students hovering in the conference room. One Harvard Law student made a saracastic remark that as soon as he told people he was an HLS student, everyone assumed he was stuck up -- a few students jokingly called that "dropping the H bomb."
"Dropping the H bomb doesn't do much at Berkman." said the director, unimpressed.
"Because nearly everyone around here is from Harvard?" I asked.
Well, that's true, but really it's because we know there's so much to offer from all kinds of schools, she said. There's value in having different groups here and plenty of talented people out there outside of HLS.
How refreshingly novel. I can tell you, after working on applications for judicial clerkships, this is definitely not the perspective to which I am accustomed.
The Citizen Media Law Project
I soon met my fellow interns on the project. There are three of us, two Harvard Law students and myself. Because of my background in journalism, I will be working on outreach for the Online Legal Media Network, a network of pro bono attorneys that the project connects with online journalists in need of legal assistance. I'll be trying to get this service more publicity. I really couldn't be happier about the work for which I was selected.
We'll also be writing weekly blog entries about media law issues, updating the legal threats database -- a compilation of litigation and other legal "threats" such as cease and desist letters or advanced threats of prosecution -- and the legal guide, which breaks down state and federal law on a variety of media law topics.
Additionally, I hope to write a white paper while I'm here that could be published on the project's web site. Finally, as part of the Center's ongoing attempt to explain its goals and its internship program, all of us will also create a digital piece that explains what interning at the Berkman Center is like. There are few guidelines for this, so long as it answers some question future applicants might have about the center.
So, if any interested journalists or media law savvy readers out there know of a good topic for either a legal research paper or even just a blog entry, I would be happy to hear it!
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Sunday, June 5, 2011
This is it!
Tomorrow is my first day at the Berkman Center -- I am excited and anxious, not sure what to expect but I just know I will love it. I'll report back later!
Me on the Charles River
The Charles River separates Cambridge from Boston -- it's a popular spot, with lots of people kayaking, sailing, canoeing or just lying by it's bright blue water during the summertime.
Something about being near water always makes a trip feel more "vacation-y," though I suspect part of that is because Lexington has no body of water nearby. I went to the river today as part of the River Festival, which is in it's 32nd year. And interestingly enough, my roommate had never heard of it.
That tells you something about how much a city has to offer, if there's an annual festival with thousands in attendance and a resident of the area has never heard of it!
Saturday, June 4, 2011
How to appease the mass transit monster
The scariest part -- so far, that is -- of moving to such a large city from Kentucky is the mass transit monster.
When I say that, I imagine a large, red furry monster with big horns, wearing a Red Sox cap and screaming at me in a strange accent, littering wherever he walks with tickets and Charlie cards, with an annoying habit of perpetual lateness and a refusal to admit that causes a problem for anybody.
Here's why I imagined the monster was so scary:
1. I have never used mass transit because I'm from Kentucky, a state which is very low on forms of mass transit because there is little need. As far as I knew everyone over the age of 16 drove everywhere in their own cars 100% of the time.
2. There are thousands of people using the transit every day so a newcomer probably will not be given much time or patience to learn said mass transit. This is very offputting to someone who was taught to be kind to strangers until given a reason otherwise, and especially hard when you are new and feel particularily vulnerable, so feel especially timid.
3. There are several, sometimes overlapping forms of mass transit. There's a bus route, a subway route, a commuter rail, taxi cabs, flying carpets and catapults if you're in the right part of the city. Apparently having one reliable method was simply too easy to learn, so in order to keep things fun they invented more methods to keep the guessing game going. I highly suspect even native Bostonians have no idea how to use more than two methods and may just pretend they do if anyone asks.
4. Since you have no idea how to get anywhere, you will constantly have to resort back to mass transit options to figure out how to get around the city. That involves carefully identifying where to go, what system to use to get there and how to use it, how long it will take you, and what your emergency escape route is if you get lost (see number 5, below).
And, finally, but not least scary:
5. If you make a mistake, you will have zero idea where you've ended up, and perhaps less of an idea how to get back to wherever it was you were headed in the first place, if you can remember that after surviving the panic from getting lost in a city like Boston.
Here's how I did on my first venture. (If I don't come back in ten minutes, send a search-and-rescue crew. A large one.)
So. Once again, my gracious roommate decided to show me how one uses the Red Line, a simpler subway system that is apparently quite reliable and goes through Cambridge to downtown Boston.
It's about a 15 minute walk to the Harvard Square red line station, and since it's a lovely walk through the Yard I so far don't mind that at all. Things got a bumpy start though when I couldn't add money to my card, and the subway agent was very unexcited that anyone was actually going to ask him a question today. We took the subway to the Green Line, which meets the Red Line in downtown Boston and then -- because the subway wasn't fun enough -- splits into four lines all going different directions.
Lovely. So, I have (sorta) figured out how to use this Red Line, and haled my first taxi cab. Though somehow, I was expected to tell him how to get where I wanted to go, which says quite a lot when the person who drives the city every day for a living hasn't figured it out enough to take me home.
But, Green Line crazy splitting aside, it wasn't that bad. The Red Line seems fairly straight forward and at least there are taxi cabs all over the city if you do get completely and totally lost. Just keep cash on you (and having some strong nerves might be a good thing, too).
I will eventually be a "big city" traveler -- I will rub the belly of the mass transit monster. Just you wait, Boston.
When I say that, I imagine a large, red furry monster with big horns, wearing a Red Sox cap and screaming at me in a strange accent, littering wherever he walks with tickets and Charlie cards, with an annoying habit of perpetual lateness and a refusal to admit that causes a problem for anybody.
Here's why I imagined the monster was so scary:
1. I have never used mass transit because I'm from Kentucky, a state which is very low on forms of mass transit because there is little need. As far as I knew everyone over the age of 16 drove everywhere in their own cars 100% of the time.
2. There are thousands of people using the transit every day so a newcomer probably will not be given much time or patience to learn said mass transit. This is very offputting to someone who was taught to be kind to strangers until given a reason otherwise, and especially hard when you are new and feel particularily vulnerable, so feel especially timid.
3. There are several, sometimes overlapping forms of mass transit. There's a bus route, a subway route, a commuter rail, taxi cabs, flying carpets and catapults if you're in the right part of the city. Apparently having one reliable method was simply too easy to learn, so in order to keep things fun they invented more methods to keep the guessing game going. I highly suspect even native Bostonians have no idea how to use more than two methods and may just pretend they do if anyone asks.
4. Since you have no idea how to get anywhere, you will constantly have to resort back to mass transit options to figure out how to get around the city. That involves carefully identifying where to go, what system to use to get there and how to use it, how long it will take you, and what your emergency escape route is if you get lost (see number 5, below).
And, finally, but not least scary:
5. If you make a mistake, you will have zero idea where you've ended up, and perhaps less of an idea how to get back to wherever it was you were headed in the first place, if you can remember that after surviving the panic from getting lost in a city like Boston.
Here's how I did on my first venture. (If I don't come back in ten minutes, send a search-and-rescue crew. A large one.)
So. Once again, my gracious roommate decided to show me how one uses the Red Line, a simpler subway system that is apparently quite reliable and goes through Cambridge to downtown Boston.
It's about a 15 minute walk to the Harvard Square red line station, and since it's a lovely walk through the Yard I so far don't mind that at all. Things got a bumpy start though when I couldn't add money to my card, and the subway agent was very unexcited that anyone was actually going to ask him a question today. We took the subway to the Green Line, which meets the Red Line in downtown Boston and then -- because the subway wasn't fun enough -- splits into four lines all going different directions.
Lovely. So, I have (sorta) figured out how to use this Red Line, and haled my first taxi cab. Though somehow, I was expected to tell him how to get where I wanted to go, which says quite a lot when the person who drives the city every day for a living hasn't figured it out enough to take me home.
But, Green Line crazy splitting aside, it wasn't that bad. The Red Line seems fairly straight forward and at least there are taxi cabs all over the city if you do get completely and totally lost. Just keep cash on you (and having some strong nerves might be a good thing, too).
I will eventually be a "big city" traveler -- I will rub the belly of the mass transit monster. Just you wait, Boston.
Friday, June 3, 2011
What to do when you're on Harvard Square
After arriving at 2 p.m. in the Logan International airport, my very gracious roommates Mika and Ilana took me back to Somerville, where I'll be living for the summer. As soon as they pulled up, I was quickly greeted with a thoroughly frustrated, overweight, tan-skinned man honking his horn, who immediately got out and started yelling in some weird accent about how we shouldn't be in this lane.
Maybe that's how they say "welcome" here in Boston.
Anywho, it's about 73 degrees and sunny with a constant breeze --- terrible conditions, I tell you. I quickly got a guided tour of the area from my roommates, showing me how to get to the Berkman Center on Everett Street and also a few touristy things. For example:
This building looks so breathtaking that it's hard to describe, especially when you combine this beautiful stained-glass window with the size of the tower that greets you from the front:
Freshmen apparently eat lunch inside this building, in a very Hogwarts-esque atmosphere. If anything speaks for all you probably thought Harvard would be, it's something like this structure -- head-spinning size and intricacy, decadent but somber to the point of intimidating, yet so magnificent you just have to stare at it.
After a walk through Harvard Yard we went to the Square, where I ran into Click and Clack from Car Talk and begged them for an autograph and photo to send to Terry.
They had to make fun of me for actually knowing who they were, but still agreed to not only sign him an autograph, but take a photo, too.
As I slowly try to settle into my new, temporary home, I still can't fight this surreal feeling at the pit of my stomach that someone like me isn't supposed to be in a place like this. Can a Kentucky girl from Cardinal Valley -- not exactly upper class living, let's just admit it -- fit in ok in a place like this? I still haven't figured out if that's possible but my roommates did make a soothing point. Nearly EVERYONE who comes to Harvard wonders that same question. Did the admissions office make a mistake? Did they really want me to come here?
Yes. They did. And if so, then you WILL fit in here, like everyone else. And truth is, if you didn't get that feeling, that "Surely not. You can't mean me?" feeling, then you probably will be one of those people no one likes anyway, so who cares what they think?
I hope they are right. I'm wearing my UK gear regardless, and if you hear my Kentucky accent, so be it. I'm here to be part of an awesome media law project at the Berkman Center and learn all I possibly can, so somehow or another I'll find my vein away from home.
Maybe that's how they say "welcome" here in Boston.
Anywho, it's about 73 degrees and sunny with a constant breeze --- terrible conditions, I tell you. I quickly got a guided tour of the area from my roommates, showing me how to get to the Berkman Center on Everett Street and also a few touristy things. For example:
This building looks so breathtaking that it's hard to describe, especially when you combine this beautiful stained-glass window with the size of the tower that greets you from the front:
Freshmen apparently eat lunch inside this building, in a very Hogwarts-esque atmosphere. If anything speaks for all you probably thought Harvard would be, it's something like this structure -- head-spinning size and intricacy, decadent but somber to the point of intimidating, yet so magnificent you just have to stare at it.
After a walk through Harvard Yard we went to the Square, where I ran into Click and Clack from Car Talk and begged them for an autograph and photo to send to Terry.
They had to make fun of me for actually knowing who they were, but still agreed to not only sign him an autograph, but take a photo, too.
As I slowly try to settle into my new, temporary home, I still can't fight this surreal feeling at the pit of my stomach that someone like me isn't supposed to be in a place like this. Can a Kentucky girl from Cardinal Valley -- not exactly upper class living, let's just admit it -- fit in ok in a place like this? I still haven't figured out if that's possible but my roommates did make a soothing point. Nearly EVERYONE who comes to Harvard wonders that same question. Did the admissions office make a mistake? Did they really want me to come here?
Yes. They did. And if so, then you WILL fit in here, like everyone else. And truth is, if you didn't get that feeling, that "Surely not. You can't mean me?" feeling, then you probably will be one of those people no one likes anyway, so who cares what they think?
I hope they are right. I'm wearing my UK gear regardless, and if you hear my Kentucky accent, so be it. I'm here to be part of an awesome media law project at the Berkman Center and learn all I possibly can, so somehow or another I'll find my vein away from home.
Thursday, June 2, 2011
First night in Cambridge
After a long journey (which involved a sleepless night, a tearful goodbye at the airport in Lexington at 5 a.m., a layover in Charlotte, NC, and a screaming infant on the way to Boston) I have arrived in Cambridge and have slowly begun to settle into my apartment in Somerville.
Because I have been up since 4 a.m. and it is now almost 11, I apologize for needing to keep this short. But, first thing's first.
Yes, that's me, rubbing the foot of the statute of John Harvard, while wearing my UK Law gear.
Because I have been up since 4 a.m. and it is now almost 11, I apologize for needing to keep this short. But, first thing's first.
Yes, that's me, rubbing the foot of the statute of John Harvard, while wearing my UK Law gear.
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
T-minus 24 hours
You know that feeling in the pit of your stomach as you're walking up the steps of the law school building before the biggest exam of your semester?
Yeah, it feels like that -- multiplied by 3.
I could use a hug. Did I mention I hate flying?
I. Despise. Flying.
I suspect the person in the seat next to me will not be cool with me gripping the armrests in the seat. I hopefully won't see them again, so if I whimper a little, just judge away, random stranger.
Either way, this time tomorrow, I'll be in Cambridge.
Yeah, it feels like that -- multiplied by 3.
I could use a hug. Did I mention I hate flying?
I. Despise. Flying.
I suspect the person in the seat next to me will not be cool with me gripping the armrests in the seat. I hopefully won't see them again, so if I whimper a little, just judge away, random stranger.
Either way, this time tomorrow, I'll be in Cambridge.
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