Video Transcript

Shannon O'Keefe [English/Literature major]: This internship is a partnership between White & Case and DSM Manila and Miami University's Pre-Law Program. It's a 6-week internship in the Philippines. It's paid and you get to spend a little bit of time in New York beforehand, so about 4 days. And then they send you off to the Philippines where you get to rotate through a couple different departments: Compliance and New Business, Marketing, Finance, Knowledge. And you get to kind of see what goes on behind the scenes of a major law firm.

Yousra Jouglaf [Political Science major]: We worked a lot with the finance department. We learned about billing, we learned about the business aspect of working with the law firm. All in all it was really great. Everything was structured well. Everything was organized so you have experience with each department.

Shannon O'Keefe: The Philippines are beautiful. You know, they’ve got so many bright colors, so many beautiful landscapes, and we got to see a lot of different things on the weekends. When we had free time they took us out and we got to, you know, ride on the water in these cute little boats and we went horseback riding on a volcano! And we got to see whale sharks and pet tigers! And they just have so many fun things to do, so many activities, and, you know, we were never bored while we were there. It's just a gorgeous country.

Yousra Jouglaf: The experience certainly solidified the notion that I want to go to law school.

Shannon O'Keefe: I learned so much, and as much as I knew it was going to be a cultural experience on top of the business experience I just didn't expect to have so many things come into play.

Yousra Jouglaf: I, honestly, I would say I gained everything I needed to know about my future in law. I learned that I certainly do want to work for a global law firm.

Shannon O'Keefe: This experience definitely helped me in the law school admissions process just because it's such a unique thing to have on your resume. People see the Philippines, they see the White & Case, which is very well known in the law world, and they want to ask about it. They're curious about it. They want to know what it is I was doing in the Philippines. And so I get to tell them, you know, how much of an experience this was, how unique it was, and, you know, I have a lot of stories and I have a lot of things to say. And I think they're usually pretty impressed by the fact that this—this internship is a little off the beaten path. It's not what most people expect. So, it makes you stand out.

Yousra Jouglaf: It's certainly helped me affirm the fact that law school is right for me and that going into law is exactly what I want to do.

You know, you figure out what you want. You expand beyond your knowledge at hand. You learn a lot more about how well you deal with other people, how you can work in teams, how you can work with people whose, you know, whose language and culture, ethnicity, everything is much different than yours. But, you get to learn how to merge your minds together to something that works for both sides and it's—it's wonderful. Honestly, it's the best learning experience I've ever come across.

[Summer 2014]