I consider myself incredibly fortunate to have been able to fulfill a dream of mine: an internship with the premier civil rights agency of the United States – the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

As an undergraduate student majoring in Penn State’s Law and Society degree program, I had a strong interest in the law. I had interned for a criminal defense attorney the year before working on an appellate murder case, and that experience increased my thirst for the legal field as a whole. I was eager for more, and ideally, an opportunity with a government agency that would broaden my horizons. After looking at numerous opportunities, including the United States Department of Justice, the FBI, and the CIA, I began to narrow down my search. I always had an interest in employment law, and thought that would be a good direction to explore. After finding out about internship opportunities through the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission website, I applied.

The news came about in July, 2011, several weeks after my interview. I had gone through the application process and then the phone interview with the deputy director of the Washington, D.C. field office. She had sent me an e-mail confirming my acceptance as an intern there for the fall semester of 2011. This aligned perfectly as it was my first semester as a Penn State student. I had transferred to PSU’s World Campus following several years of courses at my community college. I was able to successfully obtain college credit and even financial assistance for the experience through the College of the Liberal Arts Career Enrichment Network. I was enrolled full-time at PSU, but because I was a World Campus student, I could continue my courses online while interning in Washington, D.C. It worked out perfectly, but would prove to be a very busy, yet very rewarding, semester.

I was able to work alongside trial attorneys, administrative judges, and investigators. I met some incredible people and made great friends while learning valuable skills and knowledge in the realm of employment law. I was assigned to the Enforcement Division of the EEOC’s Field Office in Washington, D.C. As an enforcement intern, I would be responsible for my own caseload of employment discrimination claims submitted to the office. I handled over 40 cases during my time there, and was able to conduct preliminary investigations into the claims I received as well as educate charging parties (those filing charges with our agency) on how the EEOC regulations and federal laws pertain to their situations.

The EEOC is a federal agency that was created as part of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It was created to enforce the statutes under Title VII of the Act, which created protected classes of individuals under federal law from employment discrimination. Since that time, the laws that the agency enforces have expanded. It now enforces several other federal laws as well. All of them are related to discrimination in the workplace in both the public and private sector nationwide. For instance, under such laws, it is illegal for an employer covered by those laws to discriminate against someone because of his or her color, race, national origin, disability, age, sex, and genetic information, to name a few.

I was naturally excited to learn about each of the laws and the protections offered to those they cover. I learned a lot of new things, such as to what extent people with disabilities are protected and what it takes to prove a case of discrimination by an employer. I quickly learned how many employees and employers alike are vastly unaware of their rights and responsibilities, respectively, under these federal laws.

It was an incredible experience and one that I’ll always be proud of and grateful for. I’ll be sure to elaborate and expand upon the specifics of each working day in a future blog.