Undergraduate Admissions

I have thoroughly enjoyed my education at ILR. I wanted to spend a semester away from Cornell, and I knew that participating in the ILR credit internship program would enable me to use the skills that I learned throughout my coursework and put them into practice.

I completed my credit internship at the National Labor Relations Board in Washington, D.C. I had taken classes in which I learned about what the NLRB does, and I knew that going to the NLRB would enable me to actually participate in the process myself.

I heard that the NLRB has a really great internship program and that it provides its interns with very challenging assignments. I was looking for a challenge, and I certainly was not disappointed.

When I first got to the NLRB, they trained me for two weeks on taking affidavits. I watched other board agents take affidavits from their witnesses. After two weeks I was assigned my very own cases. I was given my own unfair labor practice charges to investigate. I was a board agent, and I was treated as if I had been an employee there for five or ten years. I really hit the ground running using my knowledge of the NLRB and the law, the National Labor Relations Act.

I had to investigate my cases from start to finish. One of my cases involved truck drivers that went out on strike. While the employees were on the picket line, the employer hired replacement drivers. The striking truck drivers alleged that the replacement drivers were running them over with their trucks and that their employer was engaging in violence against them.

It became my responsibility to investigate the case and find out whether the employer was actually engaging in violence against the employees. I had to call in the strikers. I had to talk to the attorneys. I had to talk to representatives from the employer. It was my case. My supervisor gave me guidance along the way, but I was the person making the contact with the parties involved. I investigated my cases from start to finish.

In addition to speaking with the involved parties, I conducted legal research to find prior cases that were similar to my own. When I finished the investigation, I wrote a recommendation and I gave it to the regional director of the NLRB. We discussed the case and made the final decision. The case with the striking truck drivers was just one example of my cases. I had six or seven cases throughout the course of the semester that were all mine to investigate. Even if I was a full-time employee, I could not have been doing any more work. I was doing everything.

It was definitely so much more than I thought it would be. They really loved having me there. I was proactive, and I worked hard on my cases. They gave me a lot of responsibility, and it was one of the best experiences I have ever had in my life. I was just so proud of the work that I accomplished there. I loved going to work everyday!

I remember when it was approximately my third week there. I took my first affidavit, and my witness was there with his attorney. It was very intimidating to have these two older men sitting at my desk, especially since I had never done this before. At the end of the semester, the same two men were in my office because I was still investigating the case, and they definitely noticed that I was now in command of the room.

I knew the processes. I understood how the law worked, and I was able to help people that were relying on the NLRA. I saw the disputes that were happening in the work place. I saw what I was learning about in an ILR classroom in action. I learned the whole process from start to finish, and I really enjoyed it.

I went home after work everyday and told my peers what I was doing at the NLRB. They were all jealous of me. They could not get over the amount of responsibility that I had. My cases were so exciting. I was so excited to go to work every day to hear what the next witness would say about my case. Every person that came into my office had a different perspective on the situation, which made it very interesting.

After graduation, I plan on going to law school. I really want to stay involved in labor law because it deals with people—people that are very emotional and passionate about their jobs. People go to work everyday and they want to be happy about the work that they are doing. My internship at the NLRB made me realize that labor law is so exciting. You are not sitting there reading documents all day long. You are actually out there dealing with the people and resolving issues that matter to them on a daily basis. My credit internship at the NLRB was an incredible experience, and I am so fortunate to have had such a wonderful opportunity!