Senior Profile: Grace Hart '13

“This internship was also valuable for me as I prepare for my career after Dartmouth. I will be attending Yale Law School next year with the hope of pursuing a career in criminal justice policy, and I believe my experiences with the public policy minor and Rockefeller Center programs have given me a solid foundation for this career path.” 

 

I came to Dartmouth with an interest in government and policy, and after taking Public Policy 5, Introduction to Public Policy, with Professor Shaiko during my freshman winter, I knew I wanted to do the Public Policy Minor. I was drawn to the department’s emphasis on practicality and applying skills from the classroom to real-world problems. I participated in the Rockefeller Center’s First-Year Fellows program during the summer after my freshman year as an intern at the Smithsonian’s Office of Policy and Analysis, which provides multi-method research services to the Smithsonian and other federal agencies and museums. Through this internship, I gained more exposure to qualitative and quantitative research methods and saw how they could be applied to public policy issues. The skills I developed in this internship were particularly valuable when I took Public Policy 45, Introduction to Public Policy Research, and worked for the Policy Research Shop during my sophomore year. My experience as a First-Year Fellow was one of the highlights of my Dartmouth career; I met some of my best friends through the program, and have lifelong memories of watching the Fourth of July fireworks, learning to cook together, and touring the White House. 

My work for the Policy Research Shop on New Hampshire’s juvenile justice policies sparked my interest in the criminal justice system, and I decided to focus my public policy minor on criminal justice policy. I wanted to gain real-life exposure to the criminal justice system, and with support from the Rockefeller Center, I completed an internship at the Legal Aid Society in New York last summer. I had the opportunity to shadow Legal Aid attorneys during arraignments at the Brooklyn Criminal Court, which gave me perspective on how the court system functioned as well as the inequalities and prejudices within the criminal justice system. I also had the opportunity to meet and speak with the Legal Aid Society Attorney-in-Chief, President, General Counsel and Chair of the Board of Directors, and learned about the groundbreaking work they did for the Legal Aid Society and other organizations. This internship was also valuable for me as I prepare for my career after Dartmouth. I will be attending Yale Law School next year with the hope of pursuing a career in criminal justice policy, and I believe my experiences with the public policy minor and Rockefeller Center programs have given me a solid foundation for this career path.