Business Student Working for a Government Agency?
Business Law, a required course that all Babson students have to take during Freshman or Sophomore Year, has caused different levels of pain for many students. Not a lot of students at Babson concentrate in Legal Studies, and most Babson students do not ever think about working for the government. When thinking about having an internship, most people automatically think of investment banking, consulting, and IT industry, leaving me the only person I know who interns at a government agency as a legal intern. And yes, I am also an international student.
Being a Babson student who comes from a foreign country and works for the U.S. State government as a legal intern sounds pretty funny, yet exciting. The agency I am interning at is called Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination (MCAD), and I work at one of the satellite offices in Worcester. I currently live in Lexington, which means it takes me two hours to commute everyday, and I need to pay for parking. This is also a non-paid internship, so really thank you Babson for offering me the sponsorship so I can pay for my rent, gas, and parking.
MCAD is a agency that aims to eradicate discrimination by enforcing anti-discrimination law. The four big categories we cover and enforce law upon are employment, housing, public accommodation, and education. Among these, employment and housing are the top two reasons complaints want to search for law protection. I started my internship at the Boston office, the headquarter, for training. All interns are divided into two groups, the undergrads and the law school students, since we do different kinds of work. Most of the interns are working at the Boston office, which is a big team and the work they do are more structured, while several others are spread out into the other three satellite offices in Springfield, Worcester, and New Bedford. Working in a satellite office is quite different from working in the headquarter as the working environment is much more flexible and laid-back with fewer people in the team. I do not have just one task that I have to perform over and over again like interns at the headquarter do. Instead, I have a more holistic experience of working under a government agency as I have to be involved in everything in a small office. In addition to my primary job that involves basic administrative work, filing, and research, I also take part in the intake, mediation, and conciliation process with the head commissioners.
If you do not remember these legal terminologies, please see my next post in which I will explain them and share more insights on my internship experience with you! See you next time!