Hi everyone! My name is Renata O’Donnell. I am from Scranton, Pennsylvania, and I am a rising senior at the University of Pennsylvania. I am very fortunate and incredibly excited to be working at the Philadelphia branch of the American Civil Liberties Union this summer.
Of all the emails I have received from my summer supervisor thus far, the one that excited me most was the one with the subject “March with Us at Pride Parade!” I marched in the DC Pride Parade last year with Planned Parenthood and found the experience incredibly exciting and empowering. We marched through the streets of DC, and threw condoms and candy to the cheering crowds. I have not begun my work with the American Civil Liberties Union yet, but I know that any workplace that wants to give employees the experience of being in Pride Parade is the kind of place where I want to work.
I begin work at the ACLU on June 15 and could not be more excited to get into my schedule. I know my title is that of a Legal Intake Intern and that I will be reviewing letters and incoming calls, acting as a sort of first level filter to see if the complain constitutes the sort of issue that the ACLU would take on. This vague idea of my work makes me a bit nervous, but also very excited. I know that the Philadelphia ACLU is the only branch of the ACLU that places every case with some kind of professional, so even if the case is not a Constitutional violation, the Philadelphia ACLU does the legwork to get the case into the hands of someone who can do something about it. I am very excited to see what that looks like and to see if it is truly feasible. Do cases get sorted out in a timely matter? How much can people be helped once their case is passed onto a different office? I am looking forward to uncovering the answers to these questions and I am most looking forward to helping people with issues that truly mater to them and to our country.
renataod 