Philip Hammersley
Written by Chelsea Bratten
Hillsdale College students can enjoy the unique opportunity to study and intern simultaneously in Washington D.C. through the Washington-Hillsdale Internship Program (WHIP). Students can spend either a semester or a summer in the nation’s capitol. In order to learn what that the program is like, I asked Philip Hammersley about his semester-long internship in D.C.
Philip, currently a junior, explained that he wanted to experience D.C. because he could envision himself living and working there in the future. He was formerly interested in policy work, but now he’s looking into a career in law. Philip noted that while D.C. is “definitely the place to go if you want to do policy work,” it provides a wide variety of opportunities for various fields.
Philip interned in the Legal Center at the Heritage Foundation—a research institute dedicated to the promotion of “public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong national defense.” He explained his daily tasks: “I read newspapers and law reviews in order to stay informed about what was happening in the legal community. Then my fellow interns and I helped circulate noteworthy articles to the scholars employed by the Foundation. I was assigned two mentors, both attorneys, whom I helped with legal research and other tasks.”
When I asked Philip what type of legal research he did, his face lit up. “I helped find areas where civil asset forfeiture was being abused,” he told me. He went on to explain that civil asset forfeiture pertains to the government seizure of citizen property. “I also did a research project on the circumstances under which the court should defer to the legislature,” he noted.
Philip also mentioned some of the unique opportunities Hillsdale provides through the excursion portion of its program. One of his favorite parts of his WHIP experience was taking a tour of the Supreme Court and listening to an informal lecture by Justice Alito about the judicial processes of the Supreme Court.
I asked Philip how liked daily life in D.C. “It was awesome! Living there with people I liked was one of the best parts of my experience. The housing is in a great area of town, you can walk everywhere, and Union Station is just a few minutes’ walk away.” Philip laughingly told me that there is so much to do in D.C. that you almost feel bad if you don’t take advantage of something new each weekend. Whether that means going to a museum or simply settling in to study at Ebenezers Coffeehouse—a favorite local spot—it is easy for a student to stay busy in D.C.
Is Philip glad he took a semester to study in D.C.? Absolutely. “A lot of people don’t want to leave Hillsdale for a semester. I understand that. But it was one of my favorite semesters at college.”
Chelsea Bratten is a junior at Hillsdale College, where she double majors in Politics and Spanish. She is the President of the Hillsdale College Firearms Club, a George Washington Fellow, and a member of the Rho Gamma chapter of Chi Omega. In the Fall of 2014, she will spend a semester interning in Washington D.C. through Hillsdale College’s WHIP program.