CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19) RESOURCE CENTER Read More
Add To Favorites

Williams lands D.C. internship

The Portsmouth Daily Times - 2/14/2017

Feb. 14--It's been almost a month since Pajah Williams moved to Washington D.C., taking the next step in her academic career.

Pajah is the daughter of Mark and Portia Williams and a 2013 graduate of Portsmouth High School.

After graduating from high school, Williams moved to Tiffin Ohio, where she began her undergraduate career at Tiffin University.

"During my senior year of high school, I started applying to different colleges," explained Williams. "Unfortunately, I didn't get into my first choice, but I was accepted to Tiffin. Of all the schools I applied to, they offered me the largest scholarship so it just made sense to go there."

Williams is currently in her last semester of her senior year and studies Forensic Psychology. Forensic psychologists specialize in applying psychological knowledge to legal matters, both in the criminal and civil arenas. Williams also holds a minor in Philosophy.

"I wanted to do something that was going to lead me into law, it's always been my end goal to become a lawyer. But I didn't want to go into basic pre-law. I wanted to do something interesting that applied to criminal justice in some other facet," explained Williams. "I thought that psychology, since it is used a lot of time in the criminal justice system, which was especially important for me since I want to go into Criminal Defense. It's given me a lot of empathy and understanding as to why people commit crimes and what contributes to recidivism."

Williams knew she wanted to get a head-start in her career and start learning in the field. When a liaison from the Washington Center visited her University, she took interest and applied.

The Washington Center is an organization based in Washington D.C. that helps place college students in internships, find jobs and offers seminars for students as well.

Williams chose to participate in their Washington D.C. Program, which combines real-world experience with academic coursework.

"I went through the interview process and I was offered internship positions with different agencies and the one I decided to work with was the Public Defender Service, it's really interesting and really unique because my job is to work as an investigator. It's very hands-on, I'm canvassing crime scenes, interviewing witnesses and clients, sometimes doing subpoenas, just a lot of different things that are going to help me," said Williams.

Williams says she's enjoying her time in D.C., and is trying to take in everything she can during her stay.

"I really like D.C. there are so many opportunities and things, being the nation's capitol, it's very politically charged. There are a lot of protests, I woke up today and there were people marching from the capitol to the White House and they're out there protesting some great injustice. It's really beautiful because I'm into that sort of thing," said Williams.

Williams is set to graduate from Tiffin this coming May and is awaiting acceptance letters from law schools where she will continue her education.

Reach Ciara Conley at 740-981-6977, Facebook "Ciara Conley -- Daily Times," and Twitter @PDT_Ciara.

___

(c)2017 The Portsmouth Daily Times (Portsmouth, Ohio)

Visit The Portsmouth Daily Times (Portsmouth, Ohio) at www.portsmouth-dailytimes.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.