Summer Internship testimonials as part of the Community Service Fellowship Program
The following is from our 2013 summer intern, Rachael Apfel ’14, who worked at the Dallas District Court.
“This summer, I had the opportunity to intern with the Clerk’s Office at the Dallas District Court. The building was in downtown Dallas, and consisted of multiple floors of courtrooms where various cases were heard over the course of the day. Going into the internship, I expected it would consist of largely helping with small day-to-day tasks in the Clerk’s office, such as organizing, shredding, filing, etc. Instead, what I got was real exposure and experience unlike any I had had up to that point. Each day, when I came into the office, I was to look at the large calendar of cases that were taking place in each courtroom, and I could choose which one interested me. After that, “my only job was to learn”, as my supervisor told me week after week. In other words, I was to get my hands dirty and really dive into the experience. I could choose to sit in on a jury selection, shadow a law clerk on a case, or visit the judges’ chambers when they had idle time. I was the go-to for errands—which largely consisted of running papers or messages from offices to courtrooms in the midst of a case when clerks and attorneys could not leave—and I was there to help with random tasks that various legal personnel in each courtroom might need. I did not have specific expectations or concrete responsibilities. All that was expected was that, when I walked away at the end of the summer, I learned something. And that is exactly what happened. Getting to be in a courtroom every single day was certainly not what I expected, but it taught me so much and gave me a more in-depth idea of what criminal law consists of, which is particularly valuable insight as I hope to pursue a career in law. In the end, this was perhaps the best summer working experience I could have hoped for, and I learned more than I ever expected. As I apply to law school this semester, the work I did this summer has given me a great deal of perspective of the different types of law I should be considering. It is not easy to find a valuable summer experience, and I am so thankful that I was given the opportunity to pursue this one with the help of the Harvard Club of Dallas.”