After a wonderful career as a Foreign Service Officer with the United States Agency for International Development, I was extremely fortunate to join the American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative (ABA ROLI). ABA ROLI has a focused mission: to promote justice, economic opportunity and human dignity through the rule of law. This singular mission is carried out in over 50 countries, with a wide variety of challenges and opportunities.
This multitude of operating environments, combined with often rapid and unexpected changes, demands new ideas. The best way I know to keep our thinking fresh is to promote practices that result in a diverse work force. Having a greater mix of employees from diverse backgrounds will promote achievement of our mission, improve the effectiveness and impact of our work and generate more ideas and innovations. People with diverse experiences think in different ways and promote creativity. They also make for a more enjoyable and interesting work environment.
I went to law school in my home state of Iowa, graduating well before the internet era. With only one class entitled “International Law,” the hurdles to a career in international rule of law development were more than merely geographic. While the internet has filled the information void, barriers to entry still exist for many diverse, bright and passionate students, especially those attending schools outside the orbit of Washington, DC, who may not have links to the still somewhat inaccessible rule of law field.
That is why I am so excited by the partnership ABA ROLI has formed with the Jones Day Foundation – whose generous support will pay for housing and related costs – which will bring a group of diverse students to intern at ABA ROLI this summer. Each Jones Day intern will learn about how we design, implement, monitor and evaluate our rule of law programs, as well as our interesting and practice-oriented research and outreach. Just as important, each intern will have opportunities to experience the legal, international and social aspects of Washington, DC.
If this sounds interesting to you, please apply now to get a better understanding of what the rule of law field has to offer and help us at ABA ROLI to be an even more innovative and exciting place to work!
| Click here to apply → |
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