My Remote UCDC Experience

I planned to go study abroad my second year of college during the fall. Unfortunately because of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was canceled. I knew that I still wanted to have a different academic experience than most of the people I went to school with. I began to look at the different programs and opportunities that my school, UCR, had to offer. One day, my advisor sent out an email with a flyer discussing UCDC. I was very intrigued by it since Washington, DC is the capital of the US and is the center of the US government. I looked into it and decided it was the right fit for me since I was a political science major, and the program offered different courses that interest me so I applied.

The first time I applied, I was denied acceptance since I did not have the necessary experience nor did I have the class-standing necessary to join the program. I began to intern and volunteer with different organizations to get the experience necessary. I applied the following quarter again, and this time I was accepted for Spring 2021. After being accepted, I had to attend weekly meetings to prepare myself for UCDC. Most of these meetings were about how to get an internship, how to get the class that we wanted from UCDC, as well as general check-ins, to see how everyone was doing.

It took me my entire winter quarter to find an internship that I was genuinely interested in as well as one that would actually take me. This was a stressful process since I kept getting a lot of “No’s” from the places I had applied to. In the end, I applied to the Women’s Federation for World Peace, USA, and even though they did not offer me an internship spot, they referred me to the Women’s Federation for World Peace, International (WFWPI) which is where I interned for Spring 2021. During this same time, I chose the core seminar that I wanted to take with UCDC which was about the Supreme Court.

My class began two weeks ahead of my internship which I enjoyed so that I could get a better hang of things. It was about an hour and a half long, and it was more of an introduction to the Supreme Court. I was able to learn who the nine justices were as well as understand why the court takes cases and how they’re decided. Even though the class was taken through zoom, it was one of the most interesting classes I’ve had in my college career and the only one that I truly have enjoyed since the zoom transition began.

Two weeks after classes had begun, I started my internship with WFWPI where I  worked alongside five fellow interns and got help from three wonderful mentors: Grace Kellett, Merely Barlaan, and Mako Mori. I researched the Women, Peace, and Security agenda and gained an understanding of its efficiency around the globe. I was able to learn more about WFWPI and the founder’s mission as well as from the ideas/experiences that my mentors had had. Yet to me the most valuable thing I learned was understanding the importance of the role that women place in society. Prior to this internship, I didn’t necessarily think that women played key roles in peacebuilding or security, I just believed that it was the right thing to do by allowing them to play a role. In reality, though, sustainable peace wouldn’t be possible without women since we’re only focusing on one gender rather than everyone.

Overall, my experience with UCDC was very rewarding. It might have been online, but I was able to study things I was passionate about. I interacted with new people and attended meetings that I never thought I could be part of. So even though I wasn’t able to travel to DC, I was able to get a different type of college experience which is what I’ve always wanted.

• remote internship
• UCDC
• WFWPI