Will Thomas

Hi! I'm Will Thomas, an Ivan Allen College Ambassador and a fourth yeat International Affairs and German major with a minor in Social Justice. I've interned with a German cultural nonprofit, a voting rights nonprofit, a refugee resettlement nonprofit, a political campaign (where I later worked as a Field Organizer), and the Ivan Allen College itself. I've also been a research assistant helping on a counterterrosim project. I love my cat, going to concerts, and reading books.

[willattech-blog]

Ok, I’m going to catch all of you up to right now, because I have so much exciting stuff going on that I want to brag about (and because it’s a productive way to procrastinate working on finals)!

For the summer of 2018, I had two goals: 1) practice relaxing and having free time and 2) get an idea of what I wanted to do when I graduated. These goals were more difficult than expected. As I detailed in my last post, I was constantly keeping myself busy as a way of justifying my existence through productivity. But as my therapists puts it, I’m a human being, not a human doing. It took concentrated effort on my part to actually schedule time for me to do nothing. This sounds counterproductive, but it was a needed baby step before I could spontaneously do nothing.

This isn’t to say I was doing nothing over the summer. To the contrary, I took two International Affairs class and did research for class credit. I worked under Dr. Jenna Jordan, my favorite professor, and helped her build a database of examples and info on ISIS leadership decapitation - not literal decapitation, but examples of leaders being killed or arrested - to overlay with data on the number of attacks and fatalities, to see if there would be an effect. To be honest, I thought I was going to hate doing research. Going in, I honestly didn’t have a real understanding of what research meant for liberal arts. I was pleasantly surprised with how excited I felt when I would find new data points to add to the database.

As for figuring out what I wanted to do, I knew I wanted to help make the world better and also to experiences places and cultures vastly different from where I was from. After pouring over material and speaking with a recruiter, I began and submitted my application for a position as in English teacher in Comoros, an island nation just north of Madagascar.

The summer quickly came to an end. To figure out if this Peace Corps position was actually something I wanted to do, I began an internship at the International Rescue Committee to teach English to refugees resettling in the Atlanta area. The experience was eye-opening. I was now able to put faces and personal connections behind the international conflicts I read about and discussed in my classes. I also realized how much in my own life I took for granted as I taught three grown men the basics of using a computer mouse, something they had never used before.

I also took 5 courses this semester, nearly all of which I ended up having to write a research paper for! Turns out my summer experience would come in handy. For the first time, I actually felt like I was going to succeed in my projects, rather than doubting and questioning myself. This semester offered the largest set of opportunities to hone my research and writing skills, and I’m glad to say it’s been successful so far! (I still have a few papers to finish.... but I’m in a good place with them right now.)

This was also the first year that the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs structured their capstone course in a project-based way. Initially a little worried to be the guinea pig, my professor, Dr. Lin, and all my classmates supported one another in helping everyone create a large scale research project as the culmination of their time at Tech.

My partner Bryn (another research assistant of Dr. Jordan who I met in my Challenges of Terrorism class) and I looked at the effect of societal orientation on the decision of political extremist groups to use violence. It was amazing how after our initial analysis of sources the argument almost came together on its own, and all that was left was for us was to make it look pretty. It’s an amazing feeling to actually contribute to the field, to know that we are making an argument that has not been made before and that, hopefully, we are making a difference. Now, I just need to finish writing the paper for that class...

I got an interview for the Peace Corps and afterwards received an invitation to serve! Ultimately, I declined the invitation. Over the course of the semester, I took account of what skills I needed to hone and what values were important to me, and realized that I need to reach fluency with my German and that the only way to do so is by living in a German speaking country for a good chunk of time. I’ve now applied for several programs in Germany and look forward to hearing back. I’ll keep y’all updated, that’s all for now! Now I’ve got to get back to studying and writing.

[willattech-blog]

Campaign Life + School = BUSY

Continuing the process of catching up all of y’all on my life, here’s what I was up to during Spring 18! This was by far the busiest semester of my life. 

After interning on the Stacey Abrams campaign for a semester, they hired me as a Field Organizer! Because I was hired to work on a part time basis (about 28 hours a week), I decided to also take some classes on campus, 12 hours of classes to be exact. 

Because I had recently declared my Social Justice Minor, I decided to dive into courses for it, taking Ethnicity in American Culture (an LMC class) and History of Social Movements (an HSOC class) for the minor, and German Political Songwriting and Challenges of Terrorism for my major. I HIGHLY recommend all of these courses. What was amazing to me was how cohesive what I was learning felt - things I learned in one class would often pop up in another one of these classes. In addition, these classes all felt relevant to the work I was doing as a grassroots political organizer.

On the campaign, I eventually wound up running the entire Atlanta field office during the primary election for Governor. While I was terrified and didn’t think I could do well or succeed, the advice I received from my boss guided me through the difficulties : “You are qualified to do this, no matter how young you are. Trust yourself.” This was something I desperately needed to hear.  Not only at this job but also at Tech, I struggle with impostor syndrome, the feeling that it’s only by some colossal mistake that I’ve ended up where I am and the I’ll be found out as a faker. This is obviously not true, but the feeling can overwhelm you. 

Finding myself in a position of leadership at my job while also taking a heavy course load left me extremely stressed, but I succeeded in both areas. The campaign won the primary by a much larger margin than expected and I got a 4.0 for the semester for the first time at Tech. I also realized that this kind of strain was unsustainable. I was justifying my existence through constant action, something that was unhealthy and pushing me to my breaking point. I wasn’t over the edge yet but it was fast approaching. At the end of the semester and just before the primary, I made the decision to focus on what was more important to me, my education and my health. At the end of my Challenges of Terrorism, I went out on a limb and asked the professor, Dr. Jenna Jordan (my favorite professor) if she she needed a research assistant for the summer. To my surprise, she said yes. I then signed up for two lower level INTA courses I still needed to take and started the summer with two goals: to become comfortable with free-time and kindness to myself, and to figure out what I wanted to do after graduation. 

[willattech-blog]

Fall 17 Jobs

Continuing the process of catching up on everything I’ve been up to, I want to let y’all know about the awesome internships I got to work on during the fall!

The first internship I worked on, as I alluded to in my last post, was as a field intern with the Stacey Abrams for Governor campaign! Through my connections with my summer internship with Let America Vote, I was put in contact with the Data Director at the Stacey Abrams campaign and able to interview for an internship. At the campaign, I was able to quickly jump in with direct voter contact and volunteer recruitment and training. At the campaign, I not only learned many of the hard skills around accessing the voter database, cutting turf and call lists, and selecting populations to talk to, but I also got a chance to improve my soft skills. As an organizer, the most important skill I picked up was my people skills: being able to be quiet and listen to the people around me, empowering volunteers to affect change in their community, and training interns to the level where I’ve created my replacement.

While working this internship, I also worked as the Outreach Assistant at the Goethe Zentrum. The Goethe Zentrum is a German cultural non-profit that offers German lessons at all levels and numerous German-speaking cultural events. During my time there, I not only got to learn about the day-to-day operations of a non-profit, but also got to take on big projects. The biggest project I took on, was a career day where I presented to 802 students in 36 different classes at 17 schools about German business in the area and study abroad opportunities for the students. The most rewarding part of this experience was seeing the difference it made in the students as they realized all the opportunities available to them.

Both of these internships helped immensely in deciding what I want out of a future career. Having gained this experience, I now know that I want to pursue a career involving international non-profit and political work (more on this to come)! I highly recommend that Ivan Allen students pursue a wide variety of internships to get a feel for what kind of work they like and dislike.

[willattech-blog]

Catching Up

Testing... testing... is this thing on??

Well, it’s about a year and a half since my last post soooooooo my bad on that! I’m going to use the next few posts to catch y’all up on what I’ve been doing for the past year and a half.

After my semester on campus doing classes and interning for the Ivan Allen College, I spent my summer interning with a voting rights profit in the northern Virginia area called Let America Vote. LAV’s whole idea is to support candidates in local elections who are going to protect voter rights. As a field intern, I spent my time going out into the community and engaging directly with people to let them know about local elections they should vote in! This meant I spent about 5 hours a day out knocking on doors during the summer, about 100 doors a day. It was a little sweaty to say the least. Thanks to my hard work, I was promoted part-way through the summer to be a Lead Field Intern, and had about 6 interns under me who I was in charge of supervising, training, and supporting (while still knocking on doors myself). It was an amazing experience and I made a ton of close friends and even got to work at the main office in D.C. a few times (picture above is taken on the roof of the office, overlooking the White House).

My advice to people is to apply for cool internships - the worst that could happen is they say no! I applied for this internship and didn’t think I’d get it, forgot about it, and was pleasantly surprised when I heard back from them! You never know what’ll happen, and what the connections you make will lead you to (foreshadowing for my next post....)

[willattech-blog]

Looking Back

Today is the last day I’m the social media intern for the Ivan Allen College. This internship has been so much fun, and helped me learn a ton, both about myself and about the type of work I’ve been doing.

This was my first time working in an office environment. I didn’t expect at all to do well in an office, but Jamie and Elizabeth were super easy to work with and luckily whenever I got too stir-crazy I could walk around the garden courtyard a few steps away. I got excited about the work I was doing, and would even sometimes keep working at home when there was a project I really wanted to finish.

Gaining this experience in marketing and running social media has lead me to realize that this is something I want to pursue further. I applied for several other internships doing similar work for the summer and fall, and hopefully I’ll end up with one of them. In addition, I know plan on adding a marketing certificate to my degree. On top of this, it’s been extremely fulfilling to give back to the College and to see and brag about the amazing things our professors and students are doing. I’m very thankful I’ve had this opportunity.

[willattech-blog]

The semester has been picking up at Tech! It seems like just as I finally get into the swing of things (this semester it’s classes, my internship, and two part-time jobs), there’s barely a month left for me to do them.

This spring break I decided that I wanted to avoid the stereotypical beach trip and instead drove to Washington, DC and stayed with my friend at Georgetown. It was nice to see her, but she had class and work during the day. Luckily, I love spending time with myself and spent my time during the day wandering around the city. Wanting to make the most out of the trip, I visit the Mansion on O Street, National Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Air and Space, Smithsonian US History Museum, wandered all around the National Mall and visited more museums and galleries that I’ve already forgotten about, and ate a lot of really good food. My favorite thing about DC was how bikeable it was and how how nice it’s bikeshare program is! I was able to rent a bike right outside of Georgetown University and could bike to the National Mall and leave the bike at a station there for $2. Also, my friend has a kitten that I was able to play with (and snuggle with) while I was staying with her.

On campus it feels like things are quikcly approaching their end for the semester. We just wrapped up our last Shadow Day of the year (where I go to take a great selfie with Dean Royster and talk to a ton of parents and prospective students) and everyone is already looking towards final exams and end of semester projects. Luckily interning this semester and only being a part-time student means that my finals season won’t be too stressful, although it’s impossible to go through finals without stressing at least a little bit. 

The end of the semester also means I’m searching for a place to live, making my schedule next semester, and applying for more internships! Two friends and I are looking at houses in Home Park and Midtown to rent, which makes me feel much more adult than usual. Living in my own house with other college students is going to be a big change for me. Class registration has gone well, except for that I’ll have an 8am two days a week, but at least that will keep my sleep schedule normal and is made up for by not having classes on Friday. I’m working right now on my application to intern at the Carter Center. They have a position that is essentially what I’ve been doing in the Ivan Allen College Office, and I would love to have it.

It’s been a great semester, time to push through to the end!

[willattech-blog]

This past Friday I had the amazing opportunity to hear President and Mrs. Carter speak at a town hall event after they received the Ivan Allen Jr Prize for Social Courage.

Just from being in the same room as this couple and hearing them speak I know that these are two of the kindest and most genuine people you will ever meet. They constantly mentioned the importance of showing kindness to others, and when President Carter was asked what his most relevant policy was from when he was in office, he responded (to the dissatisfaction of the student who asked), “I always told the truth. Politicians should always tell the truth.”

It blew me away to hear his message of radical acceptance, especially from a white southern man who had been a politician. Mrs. Carter spoke on her decades of helping the cause of mental health. What struck me was the importance she placed on viewing those with mental illness as just that: regular people affected by an illness. I hadn’t realized that there had been a huge movement to make things this way, and that she had been the one behind this paradigm shift.

The Carters left me feeling positive and empowered. Each and every one of has can fight for equality, can fight for justice and improvement in our own communities.

[willattech-blog]

Ok so I have not posted on this blog in a long long time but I’m back! Also, I’m now the social media intern for the Ivan Allen College so I feel like I should probably be an active blogger...

Fall semester was kinda rough for more so we’re gonna jump straight into this semester and what’s going on RIGHT NOW!

I’m sure you’re aware of all of the policy changes from the new administration. More specifically, the immigration ban is personally affecting many Tech faculty and students, preventing them from going to conferences outside of the country, from seeing their families, and from leaving the country. They are, in effect, being detained solely because of where they’re from.

Today students organized a rally to stand in solidarity with those affected. Because Tech is a STEM school, it’s traditionally not very politically active, which is why it warmed my heart so much to see this new level of political activism in Tech students. Both students and faculty spoke on how the immigration restrictions were personally affecting them and after they all spoke I was feeling the vibes in me and started a “Show me what democracy looks like, this is what democracy looks like” chant going with the around 1000 people there. I’m feeling recharged and ready to keep fighting after that. Let’s keep it going!

[willattech-blog]

The past few weeks have been eventful.

First, summer freshman have arrived on campus and FASET Orientations have begun. As an Ivan Allen Ambassador, I’ve had the chance to interact with and get to know our summer freshmen and fall freshmen that have come to FASET orientation. I love all the promise and diversity I’ve soon in our students and I’m excited to see how all of them succeed at Tech.

In addition, as I’m sure everyone is aware, our country continues to be plagued by gun violence and the death of citizens at the hands of the police. This past Friday I had the opportunity to support my community and join the NAACP in marching through downtown. The whole evening and night I was surrounded by positivity, love, and diversity. We were there to demand change and memorialize those that were lost. I’m very thankful that I had the opportunity to demonstrate and learn how someone like me can make a difference.

[willattech-blog]

Seeing as this is my first blog post and the summer’s already halfway through, it looks like I have some catching up to do! Here’s the highlight reel of my summer.

This summer I’m taking three classes: health (APPH 1040), intro to psychology (PSYC 1101), and US foreign policy (INTA 3110). Health was an early short summer class, so it’s over now. Psych is an interesting class, but my favorite class this summer is definitely US Foreign Policy. Going in, I was afraid it would be a boring history class, but a lot of what we’re learning in the class is how to think about US Foreign Policy and different perspectives on US involvement, especially in the Cold War. Also, our professor, Dr Salomone, is very chill and extremely knowledgeable (he ended gave me free concert tickets during the second week of class).

Beyond classes, I’ve gotten a job as a student assistant working at the Bill Moore Student Success Center (where we hold the Ivan Allen Shadow Day and where the tours are based out of). In addition, I’ve been exploring Atlanta, whether that’s running through Piedmont Park and the Beltline or trying out new restaurants in the neighborhoods on the East side or going to concerts at a bunch of the smaller venues around the city.

My highlight of the summer has been going, for the second time, to the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Manchester, Tennessee (the blurry picture above is the arch at the festival entrance next to my Ivan Allen College sunglasses). My favorite thing about Bonnaroo is how open and friendly everyone is. Coming back to Tech after the festival I was surprised at the lack of old hippies and how clean everyone was.

Looking forward, this summer I hope to continue working hard in all my classes and finding new places around the city (or around the country if I have the chance to travel). I’ll keep y’all updated!