BREAKING into the BELTWAY

WASHINGTON, D.C.--Bathing suit or business suit? Spring break can be a chance to catch up on rest in the Caribbean sun, but Radcliffe College offers the chance for students to don their professional garb and step into the office of an alumna.

The Radcliffe Externship Program, in its 22nd year, allows undergraduate women to live and work with alumnae during their spring break. The program not only gives them a chance to learn about a career, but also about being a career woman. Instead of relaxation, these students get a first-hand try at the demands of a 40-hour work week--with homes and families on the side.

"The students live with their sponsors, so they don't just get a nine to five experience," says program coordinator Susan C. Arnott. "For the students who live with families, they learn what the demands are."

This year, four Harvard undergraduates went to the nation's self-proclaimed intern capitol, Washington, D.C., for their externships--with lawyers, a civil servant and a journalist.

Shiver with Anticipation

The externs knew little about their sponsors. They had only received a short description of the sponsors' jobs when they applied for the program.

Amy Chen '01 had spoken briefly to her sponsor Linda S. Lourie '87, an attorney-advisor for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, but the conversation had intrigued her.

"She said, 'I'm doing these bilateral secret negotiations with Russian diplomats and eight cabinet members. I'm not sure if I'll be able to get you security clearance," Chen said.

Chen later learned that Lourie had met with the diplomats before she arrived, but Chen said she still had an "incredible" experience.

Before embarking on her D.C. excursion, Katherine E. Foshko '00 said she was glad to have the chance to try an alternate plan after two years of relaxing vacations.

She was a little apprehensive, though, to be spending the break with headhunter Deborah Gelin '79.

Gelin spends her days hunting for lawyers to fill spaces in D.C. law firms. Although Foshko does not plan to enter the headhunting field, she says working with Gelin gave her a sense of what types of law are available.

"One of my most powerful experiences was hearing my sponsor talk," Foshko said. "I got to see her in action, see her pitch."

Gelin walked Foshko through different legal terms and helped her make contact with other lawyers, especially those involved in international law, which interests Foshko.

Foshko says she had some free time, but spent from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., mostly helping Gelin with her files.

Even though this may sound like routine work, the externs say their tasks were minimal since both they and their sponsors wanted to focus on learning about careers.

"I was looking through the Congressional Record for things related to the Bureau of Patent and Trade. It was work in name only because it was fun," Chen says. She helped out only while observing Lourie in action. "My assignment was to talk to people and gain insight on their lives."

Chen, who wants to work within the federal government, says the experience gave her a well-rounded picture of federal workers' lives.

She says the people she met had come to the government by a variety of paths. They were open and told her about the pros and cons of their jobs. She saw their stress first-hand.

"You're accountable to a lot of people," Chen says. "But it's a great opportunity to make a difference."

Lourie says she did the program to give back to current undergraduates.

"I have been helped along by many people in many ways," Lourie says. "And I'm working in an unusual area, one that's not typical."

As an attorney adviser, Lourie drafts bills on intellectual property and works with other government agencies on domestic and international trade agreements.

For Elizabeth K. Ridlington '99, whose entrance to the working world is fast approaching, career exploration was an immediate concern. Ironically, her sponsor was in a similar situation.

Her sponsor, lawyer Jane Lexton, switched jobs midweek, giving Ridlington a chance to see life at both a small and large law firm.

Ridlington had never seen a lawyer in action before. Lexton multi-tasked like a pro--handling her own billing and other logistics. Ridlington says she learned that one of the drawbacks to a small firm is the need to perform such administrative tasks.

After Lexton made the switch, Ridlington saw a vastly different law office.

"It was a completely different set-up and support system. I felt like I was starting over too," Ridlington says.

In the process of shadowing, Ridlington sat in on conference calls, heard the members of the firm discuss hiring, talked to lawyers and read through Lexton's extern file. Some of the work surprised her.

"I figured I would be sitting, watching someone at a desk," Ridlington says. "But I thought there would be more face-to-face interaction with clients."

After the week, externs have a better grasp of their sponsors' fields.

But they also learned things the Office of Career Services is not concerned with, and that would not come up in a formal interview.

Ridlington had an interesting conversation about what is acceptable for women to wear in the work place, particularly the gradations of formality needed on Friday "dress down" days.

As much as externs learned from their sponsors, the Harvard students taught the graduates something as well. After admitting to a lack of computer skills, Gelin says Foshko showed her how to send a friend a birthday card over the Internet.

On the Homefront

The learning did not end with filing and job advice; the alumnae showed externs what it's like to balance a career and family life.

Lexton, for example, changed jobs in part to work at a firm with a support staff, a more family-friendly environment.

"Much of what my sponsor did was to reduce her workload so she could spend more time with her kids," Ridlington says.

Ridlington adds that observing the dynamic between Lexton and her husband, another lawyer with whom Ridlington talked extensively, was another valuable aspect of the externship.

Because of the extreme time commitment for sponsor, Chen divided her time between three people over the course of the week. All incorporated Chen into their schedules, by taking her along when they went shopping and met with friends.

"They sort of went on with their lives, and I was there," she says.

Gelin was in the process of helping friends search for homes, so Foshko went house browsing in her Georgetown neighborhood.

For the sponsors, having a responsibility to their extern for a week put a twist into their lives.

"It makes me feel like a mother, figuring out where someone is all of the time," Gelin says.

The Fun Stuff

After the externs trickled into D.C., their sponsors scheduled some recreation before the work began.

Foshko's sponsor, legal recruiter Gelin, met her at the airport and promptly whisked her off to the National Gallery and then a movie.

Chen's host had told her they would take a bike ride after she arrived. Knowing her sponsor had graduated a few years back, Chen figured she would be able to handle the exertion. But soon she was huffing and puffing as Lourie took her on a tour of D.C. by bike.

"First we bike around the monuments. It's really flat and easy. Then we cross the state line into Virginia," Chen says.

At this point, Chen began to worry about what she had gotten herself into.

"I hadn't eaten anything all day, but I didn't want to seem whiny," she says.

Luckily for Chen, Lourie's bike seat broke and they had to stop before heading over to Mount Vernon. When she later calculated the length of their ride, Chen figured they had gone over 20 miles.

After her restful spring break tour, Chen says she will never underestimate Radcliffe women. When Lourie later invited Chen to join her on a run, Chen politely declined.

In her free time for the rest of the week, Chen concentrated on seeing tourist spots, including the Supreme Court, Library of Congress and museums.

Because of the program, though, Chen got to see the places most tourists are kept from. Her second sponsor, Deputy Director of the Office of Management and Budget Sylvia Mathews '87, took Chen on a tour of the West Wing of the White House.

One day when she was on her own, Chen faced the bane of every D.C. tourist--the Metro system.

At rush hour, Chen spent several minutes fumbling with a dollar bill that she could not make slide into the fare card machine.

"Everyone's getting impatient behind me and this girl, maybe four years-old, comes up to me and does it for me," Chen says.

As if that were not enough embarrassment, she proceeded to take the train in the wrong direction and became lost. A Metro employee had to take her to the right train and give her instructions.

Maybe tropical locales would not have presented such inner city challenges, but Ridlington says she would pick her Washington trip over Cancun any day.

"It's too hot there and [the externship] is a lot more rewarding than starting into space or watching TV," Ridlington says. "It's different from anything I do at school, and that's what I look for more than anything else in a vacation."