American Civil Liberties Union, 12/09
by Marlee Gallagher

Senior Kristine Dwyer spent four semesters interning for BNY Mellon when she decided she wanted “a different sort of experience…something in the nonprofit arena,” so she applied at The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). She began volunteering at the organization last summer and then moved into her internship with the ACLU’s Community Organizer at the beginning of the fall term. Unlike many PPW interns, Kristine learned about this internship opportunity through her job in the Career Services Department here at Pitt. Because Kristine is interested in law, a career counselor suggested the ACLU internship to her.

Kristine is a Communication & Rhetoric major and French minor with plans to attend law school in the next few years. She said that the ACLU fit into her future goals because she was able to gain “insight into a different kind of law and advocacy.” Kristine explained that her main duties at her internship site initially focused on Pittsburgh’s G20 Summit. She said that she “prepared documents for the public on topics like “Know Your Rights." During this time, she said, “I also did research and helped plan the Legal Observer effort [by] recruiting and scheduling volunteers.”

Kristine explained, “After the G20, I worked on documents for community outreach programs like the Juvenile Justice Discussion Series and the Banned Books readings.” At the end of her internship, Kristine worked on blog entries for the PA ACLU’s blog, Speaking Freely. Kristine said she wrote “about 50% of the time.” Initially, she wrote “short internal emails or notices,” but later in the term, in addition to her blog posts, she also wrote several letters to legislators, ACLU members, and donors. She also said that she worked on personnel profiles. As Kristine said, “The writing assignments became more and more intense over the course of the term.” Though it was a lot of work, Kristine plans to use several of these writing assignments in her employment portfolio.

Kristine described her internship site as “a low context environment” because the ACLU relies heavily on its volunteers and interns. And, because of this, Kristine explained that “the office atmosphere [was] friendly, supportive, and open,” which she found was easy to work with. However, because of this experience, Kristine learned that she would prefer to work in a higher context office in the future.

Before attending law school, Kristine would like “to work in human resources [at] a larger business working in either employee relations or recruiting.” Once she receives her law degree, she wants to work in human rights law. Kristine said she would ideally like to work towards helping people. As a child, Kristine said she always “wanted to make a lot of money,” but while attending Pitt, she discovered that that’s not the most important part of life. She explained, “Rewarding work and work that I can [do] to help others is what I have found will make me truly happy.”

Kristine was grateful for her internship at the ACLU, and she would recommend it to future interns. She said, “It was an experience I will never forget… it allowed me to see how the government works at a different level.” She also said, “Learning about how nonprofit organizations operate was another great aspect of this internship.” Kristine hopes to stay in Pittsburgh for a few more years before checking out some other cities like Chicago, DC, and Boston. Wherever she ends up, her desire and willingness to help people in need will certainly bring her success.