Kelanie Chamberlain
EDGE Portfolio
Phone:
435-840-3996
Email:
kelaniechamberlain@suumail.net
Address:
130 South Park
Grantsville, UT 84029
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Biography
Information
Academics
Southern Utah University
Major: Political Science//Emphasis: International Relations
Minor: Legal Studies
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About Me
I am a Senior Political Science major at SUU. I am graduating Fall 2018 with my Bachelors.
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After graduation I plan on attending law school at with the hopes of becoming an attorney.
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My end career goal is to work under the United Nations in both the UN Women and the UNDP agencies.
Internship Overview
About Tooele County Attorney's Office
Abstract
My project involved an internship with the Tooele County Attorney’s Office. I interned under Chief Deputy Attorney Gary Searle and the other third district prosecutors to learn the ropes of how the Utah court system works. As an intern, I was trained to do paralegal work and to prepare for a future in the legal field. As an intern, I also assisted Chief Deputy Attorney Gary Searle and the rest of the office’s staff in their responsibilities. These responsibilities included: performing research and writing law memoranda, assisting in administrative duties, assisting in the writing of articles and assisting in the research of legislative hearings.
Goals
This internship will help me gain an advantage for law school admissions and my future career as an attorney. The main goal of my internship is to gain hands-on training and experience within the Utah’s court system.
Outcomes
If I gain hands on experience in how Utah’s court system works, I will have a higher quality application to law school admissions. I will also gain knowledge that is used during the BAR exam which will help me to become an attorney.
The primary role of this office is to prosecute criminal acts that occur within Tooele County as well as providing “civil” legal support to Tooele County.
They prosecute all felony cases and juvenile cases in Tooele County as well as the misdemeanor cases occurring outside the municipal boundaries of the Cities with Tooele County.
These cases range from traffic violations to homicides. Our objective is swift and fair justice while providing critical services to crime victims and their families.
Internship Deliverables
Reflection
My leadership skills developed immensely during my internship. Before starting this project, I was concerned about whether or not I had the skills needed to keep up on my duties and responsibilities I was going to be assigned to. One of the main skills I did not have before this project were leadership skills. During my internship, I learned that the education I had been gaining at SUU had actually provided most of the skills I needed to complete my responsibilities while interning. In fact, I was able to excel at what was asked of me by Chief Deputy Attorney Gary .Searle. I also learned that I had more leadership abilities than I thought and that I was able to make all six prosecutor’s lives a lot easier by doing the background research on their cases, copying and filing their evidence, and taking notes of all their court proceedings. I was able to develop my leadership abilities because of the leadership opportunities that Chief Deputy Attorney Gary Searle and the rest of his office gave me. The leadership opportunities they provided included: running the office on Friday's when the rest of the staff was unable to be there, taking charge of research on specific criminal cases, and helping to lead discussion during Wednesday's weekly meetings.
This internship also helped me to gain a new prospective on leadership by observing how Chief Deputy Attorney Gary Searle lead his office. Mr. Searle lead by example. He showed me how great leaders help promote an atmosphere of discussion, work alongside their coworkers, and how a failure in a case can be used to explain how everyone could win a similar case in the future. He never got physically upset if he or one of the other attorney's lost a case. Instead, he would take the reasons that the case was lost and explain it to all workers at the next weekly meeting, without calling out names, and promote using it to win the next similar case!
Newsletter
Kelanie Chamberlain
Grantsville, Utah
Political Science://Emphasis: International Relations
Leadership Track
Internship at Tooele County Attorney’s Office
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My project involved an internship with the Tooele County Attorney’s Office. I interned under Chief Deputy Attorney Gary Seale and the other third district prosecutors to learn the ropes of how the Utah court system works. The Tooele County Attorney Office is the prosecuting office for the 3rd District Court House and its corresponding jurisdiction. Its main job is to provide legal representation to its county. The office also focuses on representing the county and the State of Utah in prosecutions of crimes committed within its jurisdictional borders.
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As an intern, I was trained to do paralegal work and to prepare for a future in the legal field. As an intern, I also assisted Chief Deputy Attorney Gary Searle and the rest of the office’s staff in their responsibilities. These responsibilities included: performing research and writing law memoranda, assisting in administrative duties, assisting in the writing of articles and assisting in the research of legislative hearings. Each week I will also assist in screening incoming cases, filing and copying media and photographic evidence, and taking notes on court proceedings. I also had specific duties and schedules depending on the day of the week.
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The inspiration for my project came from three sources: my major, the Leavitt Center for Politics, and my family. I am a political science major with a minor in legal studies. In order to graduate with this major and minor I had to complete an internship in my future career field. The Leavitt Center for Politics on campus also helped me to finalize what kind of internship I wanted to use for my project. I went through their internship process and found that I wanted to intern in a prosecuting office. My family helped me to choose the Tooele County Attorney’s Office due to its jurisdiction being the same as my hometown where my family lives.
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While interning, I faced quite a few challenges, both internal and external. The biggest external challenges I faced were that of traffic and money. Tooele County, while small, has some of the worst traffic. I had to make sure that I left at least thirty minutes earlier each day to make it to my internship on time. I also was not paid for my internship so money was tight and I had to take on another job to support myself. The biggest internal challenge I faced was that of confidence. I had little experience with the courts and the responsibilities that I was in charge of before starting this internship. I was lucky enough to have a supervisor who recognized this and who gave me opportunities to learn and grow my confidence.
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This project benefited the prosecutor’s and staff of the Tooele county Attorney office, and in turn the State of Utah. I worked over 275 hours for free helping the 3rd districts prosecutors on their cases. Working for free helped our prosecutors have an intern due to budget cuts making it extremely difficult for them to receive this kind of aid. I also helped take notes on court proceedings so that the people of Utah could have access to their own and loved ones’ court proceedings. Along with this, I got to assist in the research and drafting of cases so that the prosecutors could successfully detain people who were a threat to the residents of Tooele County.
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This project benefited me in a lot of ways. The experience and skills that I gained in this internship will help me in both future projects like this and in my future career. Before this project I did not know what area of law I wanted to go into, the valence characteristics that were needed in the legal field, or how to effectively write in a legal format. Now, I know that I want to study the area of diplomacy law. I also know that I need strong charismatic, intelligent, leader-like and semi-unemotional traits. These skills and traits I have learned will help me to succeed in future projects and my future career.
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This quote from the journal I kept during my internship perfectly sums up the experience I had while completing my project.
“July 20th, 2018: Next week will be my last week interning at Tooele County Attorney's. I am both excited to get my project done and sad that my time here is ending. I have learned so much about how our legal system works and this internship has made my desire to go into law even stronger.”
