Day 10 Reflection

Barry Lawrence

5-18-10

Day 10 Reflection

Today we met with Vonda Matthews, wife of Jason Matthews whom we had met with the first Friday of our stay. Mrs. Matthews is currently the Legislative Advisor for a program called COPS, which stands for Community Oriented Policing Services. COPS is a program run under the Department of Justice where they specialize on getting grants for and setting up additional training and equipment services for police forces around the United States. While the program had met its original directive to increase police on the ground and better educate them, the department was oddly enough not allowed to “sunset” as originally planned because of the overarching value the program was to improving the effectiveness of police forces. Despite the programs lack of congressional authorization, constant budget battles, and political indifference, the program today is as strong as ever, doing much more than ever intended to encourage better policing.

Outside of her own experience with the DOJ and COPS, Matthews spoke on how to get a job in Washington, and where to go from there. As far as Matthews was concerned, an internship on Capitol Hill would be the most favorable place to start for a young undergrad or recent graduate. Her reasoning behind this statement was founded in knowing that every agency in Washington interacts with Congress somehow, and needs people who know how its works and can contribute to Congressional relations. The second place Matthews advised us to look for work was the USAJobs.gov website, where the federal government lists internship and career openings. Thirdly was an internship with a particular agency that one would like to eventually work in as a direct form of getting involved and getting know in a future workplace.