Every summer, the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences (SBS) at the University of Massachusetts Amherst sends a cohort of about twenty students to Washington DC for an internship experience filled with opportunities for professional and personal development. I’m part of the SBS in DC 2021 cohort, and I’ve been in DC for about a week now!
My first week in DC was a week of transition. For one thing, I had replaced the three people I usually travel on planes with—my mom, dad, and younger sister—with three of my cohort members. It was my first time flying without my family, so I was very apprehensive at times—especially going through airport security and struggling to reach the shelves to stow my carry-on bag. However, the trip was only a bit over an hour long, and the taxi took us straight to our internship house where all twenty-one of us would be living.
We were immediately welcomed by other cohort members who arrived earlier in the day, and who stood out in the rain with socks on just to help carry our bags. Continue…