“Try Everything”: How One SPA Masters Student Kicked Off Not Just Any Career, But the Right One

Alumni

“Try Everything”: How One SPA Masters Student Kicked Off Not Just Any Career, But the Right One

Fatima Torres (SPA, MA`24) leveraged a prestigious internship at The Lab @ DC into a full-time job in civic design.

Fatima Torres, who will earn her master’s in justice, law, and criminology from SPA this May, struck grad-school gold: she alchemized a top internship placement at The Lab @ DC into a full-time position.

The Lab, an office of the D.C. City Administrator, supports agency partners in improving the accessibility and ease of use of government services, by designing policy and program interventions tailored to meet the needs of residents of Washington, D.C. The Lab is staffed by data scientists, social scientists, and civic designers, and partners with 17�Թ�� to host graduate students.

“The reciprocal relationship between 17�Թ�� and The Lab provides so much value for both organizations,” said SPA Associate Professor of Government Ryan T. Moore, who also works as senior social scientist at The Lab @ DC. “Our 17�Թ�� students get to work on important policy problems with some of the best evidence-in-government practitioners in the world. The Lab benefits from our students' work and insight, and the District as a whole arrives at better-informed decisions as a result of our students' contributions.”

Torres, who developed an interest in research methods and statistics as an undergraduate at the University of Scranton, defended an honor’s thesis and graduated with a firm grasp of the basics. Upon graduation in 2021, she moved to Washington, D.C. to take a full-time job at a previous internship opportunity while pursuing her master’s degree at SPA.

“I was just starting out doing research, so looking back at that, there were some aspects that needed improvement,” she laughed. “I realized I really like research, particularly doing stats in R and SPSS. I did great in my stats class in undergrad, so the internship at The Lab @ DC seemed like a good fit.”

Her initial application was declined, but when a research assistant position opened up a few weeks into fall semester, The Lab reached out to Torres.

In Spring 2023, Torres worked 15 hours per week with the nonprofit, 20 hours per week with The Lab, and took a full slate of graduate coursework. Though she had much to say about the warm employee culture at The Lab, with coffee walks and birthday cards, the work was more challenging than anticipated.

“I had to have three mindsets: one for school, one for the nonprofit, and one for The Lab,” she said. “The Metro was my friend, and that 17�Թ�� card came in handy. I also remember not sleeping much. But now, we're here!”

Also, she found that her well-honed academic understanding of research principles did not necessarily extend to the applied methods practiced at The Lab.

“Though my classes laid a good foundation, The Lab breaks research into three teams: data scientists, social scientists, and civic design researchers,” she said. “In my head, I wanted to be a data scientist, but once I got into that field, it was far more complicated than I had thought.”

As Torres learned more about these teams, she leaned more towards civic design, where part of her portfolio involved the conversion of government applications and other documents into plain language.

“Bringing down the reading level of an infographic from 12^th grade to 4^th grade is actually really hard,” she shared. “But I prefer civic design work, because you engage with residents. You ask them, ‘what do you think of this? What could we make better?’ I finally found my niche at The Lab.”

Torres helped to redesign and user-test the application for housing vouchers in D.C.

“We finally launched about a month ago,” she said. “It was really exciting to be part of that. And I wouldn't have done it without the community providing us with feedback.”

In Spring 2023, as Torres settled into her civic design projects, her supervisor introduced her to the District Leadership Program (DLP). The Lab saw the internship opportunity, administered through D.C. Human Services (DCHR), as a way to extend Fatima’s work into a full-time role. She applied and was offered a full-time paid internship position for the summer of 2023, which evolved into a permanent position as an operations analyst.

“I was surprised, because it is not common practice for an RA to be offered a full-time position,” said Torres. “I left my other nonprofit job and accepted it.”

“Fatima has been a central team member since she arrived at The Lab, contributing mightily to work in housing, public engagement, business permitting, and a wide variety of other domains,” said Moore.

The work has a special significance to Torres, who grew up translating for her Spanish-speaking parents.

“My parents didn't know English, so I had to grow up quickly, at a young age” she recalled. “At that time, I wondered, ‘why is this application not available in Spanish?’”

The Lab introduced her to the complications behind the scenes that delay application translations but reassured her that efforts like theirs are moving the process along.

Torres shared another highlight of her job: leading conversations with study participants in "data walks." The Lab tested a new way of sharing results, asking study participants to meet with the researchers to discuss the data and share their thoughts on why the results might be different than expected.

“I was a facilitator for one of the data walks, and I genuinely liked doing that and talking to the people,” said Torres. “They were very helpful. If I speak Spanish to some of the residents, their faces light up. They’re like, ‘oh, finally, someone who speaks my language. Government is listening to me.”

“I envision my parents being those individuals.”

Torres has advice for upcoming SPA students looking to make career magic out of an internship opportunity: be vulnerable.

“Just be your genuine self,” she suggested. “I think that's what really helped me. Admitting I needed help worked.”

She also advised taking Professor Baehler’s Foundations of Policy Analysis as early as possible, as it lays a solid groundwork for those interested in pursuing a career in policy and research. Finally, she recommended her approach to internships: try everything.

“In my undergrad, I interned at a law office. I shadowed a judge. I volunteered at the local prison. I did the nonprofit work, and I kept going through all these internships. I just kept checking them off. I'm like, no, this is not for me. Until I got to The Lab.”

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