It's very non-profity

“It’s very non profity,” that is what Alicia, the staff immigration attorney, said to me about the CLC. The CLC handles hundreds of clients and cases, but the office consists of four cubicles stationed in the MIFA building. There are about five people who intern there regularly, and an administrative assistant, and we all have to share two computers. The computers operate off of WindowsXP. The files are all in manila envelopes in drawers, nothing is digital and things are frequently found out of order.

While having to share a computer with four people can at times be frustrating, this environment actually creates an interesting dynamic. There is less of a hierarchy and there is definitely very open communication between the executive director and those below her. The executive director’s door is always open, which is a new experience for me. In the past my boss has always been a separate entity, not someone I was in constant communication with. I think it was a good experience for me in learning how to be more comfortable around a superior. The staff immigration attorney shares the cubicles with the interns, which gave me a great opportunity to learn from her. While it can be really annoying to have to search through hundreds of pieces of paper to find a missing a file, it also forces everyone to work as a team. At any time, you can have a law school intern, a Rhodes intern, an attorney, and the boss all working on the same project and helping each other to find the missing pieces. It makes everyone an important part of the process and makes everyone rely on each other. Because they need the help so badly, there were many times where I got to do work that the executive director and the attorney are normally responsible for. Even though I was just an intern, I was afforded the opportunity to do projects that really helped me see how the organization worked from top to bottom.