Published:
Thursday, October 24, 2013
The ACLU of Washington has many wonderful interns who assist with our work. We would like you to meet some of them.
At the suggestion of a college counselor, Natasha Khanna applied to intern with the ACLU in California three years ago. She didn’t know much about the organization at the time and didn’t end up with the internship, but the ACLU has been on her radar screen ever since. Natasha is particularly interested in voting rights and the relationship between the church and state. She thinks that the ACLU is most important because it represents the “big picture.” As she puts it, “Regardless of the specific issue, we are always fighting for equal rights and the Constitution, and people can connect and rely on that.”
Now Natasha is happy to be a volunteer Legal Intake Counselor in the ACLU of Washington office. She talks with individuals calling in for help with violations of their rights. When she can’t directly resolve a person’s problem, she directs them to resources that can help.
A recent graduate of the University of Washington with a dual degree in Ballet and Political Science, Natasha just took the LSAT and will hopefully be going to law school next year. She is interested in American politics and government, and hopes to focus on patent law. As she explains, “Patent law gives you a lot of options because you can go work in the tech industry, or in the fashion industry, your options are diverse with what you can do.” She is really hoping to get into Georgetown because she spent nine years living in D.C. and wants to go back.
Ballet is Natasha’s other love, and she continues to take as many classes as she can. She says that she will never be a professional dancer because she wasn’t chosen at 15, and does not want to teach, but it will always be a part of her life. She finds it a good balance to have the creative outlet with the focus she devotes to her work and schooling.
