My internship in Cape Town, South Africa last summer, the Summer of 2010 was an extraordinary experience.  The social interactions and cultural observation were invaluable.  Not only was the cultural transformation occurring from the World Cup occurring, but I was able to participate in some very socially valuable activities.

My day-to-day activities in South Africa consisted of going to the University of Cape Town Law School.  Specifically, I worked under the supervision of Professor Debbie Collier, who works in the Department of Labor and Development.  Debbie also sits on the board of a non-profit organization that specializes in community farming.

I assisted Debbie with a lot of her research, and was lucky enough to co-author an article that examine a new personal information privacy law and our article focused on this law’s impact on employee privacy in the workplace. In addition to that wonderful opportunity, I was able to assist the non-profit in assessing whether they should apply to be approved through what is known as the “Black Economic Empowerment Program (BEE).”  This program allows companies and non-profits to basically gain points through the amount of empowerment their company provide to minorities in South Africa. We ultimately decided not to, but it was not a waste of time.  They saved considerable resources by having me do it as opposed to an attorney and also by not following through on what we found would ultimately not provide them with the level of BEE certification that they wanted.