Sunday Read: Intern Experience — Alex D.
My name is Alexander Diaz, and I recently completed an internship at National Whistleblower Center.
The University of California system hosts the UCDC program, which sends interested students to Washington, D.C. for an entire quarter to intern at their chosen site. I luckily had the pleasure of interning in the nation’s capital at National Whistleblower Center (NWC), and it unsurprisingly was one of the best experiences I’ve ever been a part of. Entering this space felt like the perfect intersection of my interests; I had always undoubtedly had passions for both social justice and advocacy work, and NWC was an amazing opportunity for both of those to intertwine.
About Alex:
Ever since high school, I’ve always felt like I’ve had such a deep passion for social justice issues and issues that affected the communities around me. During my senior year, I participated in an internship with Power California, a voting rights organization in Los Angeles, where my main objective during that time was to gather enough signatures to get Proposition 15 on the 2020 ballot. We ended up scouring through the streets of LA, knocking on doors and roaming through high traffic areas to eventually gather enough to actually get the proposition onto the ballot. The proposition aimed to increase commercial taxes on properties worth more than 3 million dollars based on their market value instead of their purchase price, and those taxes would have ended up going to educational programs in public schools and community colleges. During that same year, I supported the organization of a large, statewide effort to protest on the streets of Downtown LA when DACA was being presented to the Supreme Court. Seeing students from all over California march through the streets, shutting them down and yelling at the top of our lungs was representative of how resilient our communities are and how much these issues matter.
Transitioning to college, I held an internship at Investor Advocates for Social Justice, where I voted on behalf of thousands of shareholders a day on corporate governance regarding issues of diversity, environmental protection policies, and other important issues. This is where I truly began realizing that I genuinely cared a lot about making tangible differences through policy advocacy while at the same time weaving in my passion for social justice, and that was what brought me to look at organizations like NWC. Before even arriving in D.C., I had hopes that NWC would allow me to do the same, and although I never really had given much thought to whistleblower issues and protections, NWC managed to show me how crucial whistleblowers are and how much people galvanize around them.
Work at NWC
Seeing just how important whistleblowers are in not only exposing truths, but simply doing their job and maintaining a sense of integrity within institutions that we should hold to high expectations is inspiring actually. Doing the initial research of listening to and reading about the first ever whistleblowers and other important figures like Jane Turner was a highlight of my experience. I loved learning about the crucial contributions that people make, and it makes me wonder what other violations are being committed that we have yet to find out about.
NWC’s Impact
One thing that I really admire about the work that everyone at NWC does is that there is absolutely no lack of interest or passion within the organization. The topic of whistleblowing can often seem a little niche and there may not be as much support for these issues as one would like there to be, but that doesn’t change the people within the community. Advocacy is about passion and genuinely wanting to fight for an issue, and I think that would be the main takeaway from my internship experience at NWC. When it came to discussing a whistleblower case or voicing their opinions about the status of whistleblower protections, people are very, very well knowledgeable and are so genuinely passionate about the work they do. I’d say that the basis of advocacy actually relies on such passion; without it, no one would care enough to fight as hard as they do.
Support NWC
NWC recently marked a decade of celebrating whistleblowers. Our robust internship program helps students understand the value of whistleblowers and provides them with hands on experience with making change. As a 501(c)(3) non-profit our work is made possible with the support of our generous donors. Please consider donating $75 today so NWC can continue sharing the power of whistleblowers with students from around the country.
This story was drafted by NWC Intern, Alexander Diaz, a Junior majoring in Environmental Science and Policy at the University of California, Irvine.
