And so it begins. (My second Laidlaw Summer).
My Leadership in Action project has taken me from my comfortable, know-the-language birth-place of New York to the less-comfortable (though very beautiful), don’t-really-know-the-language not-birth-place of Berlin, Germany. So far, it has been incredible.
Before coming to Berlin, I was terrified that I would not meet anyone and that I would spend these next six weeks sitting around by myself, depressed and without even advancing one of my biggest goals, which was to learn German. I am happy to report that has not been the case. From the moment I first landed in the airport, people have been incredibly kind and made genuine efforts to get to know me. When I had trouble purchasing a “Deutschland Ticket” transportation ticket from the Deutschebahn officer, a kind Berliner from Morocco came to help me figure it out. We ended up having a great conversation about the Morocco-Senegal Africa-Cup scandal. When I had trouble figuring out how to get to the place where I was going to be staying, people were nice enough to point me in the right direction. And every time that my German has been insufficient to communicate what I mean, people have been patient enough to hear me out (something which would never happen in New York).
Another one of my fears was about the family I would be staying with. I had no way of knowing what that relationship would be like. And yet, it has been incredible. My host sister was the one who first welcomed me to the house. She showed me their beautiful home, garden, and my room (which was great and impossibly large for someone used to New York’s closet apartments). Once I settled in, she went out and picked me some delicious red barries from their garden, which she left in a bowl outside my door with a sign that said “Enjoy!”. That small gesture made me feel so welcomed in a place I thought was going to be terrifying.
Later that day, I went on to meet my host mother. She is incredible. Apparently she is a four-time Berlin-marathon runner and Half-Iron-Man triathlete. We had a great conversation over some of the most delicious ice cream I’ve had (I had never tried the “Quella” (AKA Nutella) flavor – I recommend!). When I told her that I love running and was hoping to do a triathlon, she told me she’d lend me her spare road bike so I could join her and her triathlon group on Saturday. So I guess I’m going training with a group of triathletes on Saturday! To be honest, I’m kind of nervous because she is an INSANE triathlete (when I mentioned that I was hoping to do a centure – a 100-mile bike ride which most cyclists consider a rite of passage — she looked at me quizzially and said “160 km? But that’s not that much.” SO yeah. I’ve decided I will start training a bit earlier.
Since then, I have met both of my host brothers. I played chess with the youngest one, who is 12 and I can already tell will soon obliterate me, ping pong with both and with my host mom who smoked all of us (I did not know ping pong was so popular outside of the US, but they’re clearly quite seasoned players), and talked about self-hosting and life in Berlin v. New York with the older one. It is crazy to me how different the livelihoods in both places are. The average yearly salary in Manhattan, according to Zip Recruiter, is about 80k. The average in Germany, according to my host brother, is about €30k. I have friends who, coming out of Columbia, will be making close to ten times that. And yet, the lives of everyone here seem so much happier. People have health care, better food, public transportation, there is less wealth inequality… But anyway, more on differences and my realizations later.
My job is also incredible. I am working at a human rights NGO. I don’t remember what I expected my boss to be like, but she is so much cooler than I remembered her being. She’s told me crazy stories about how she was deported from Russia, the crazy things that she has had to do as the director of an NGO fighting against human rights violations, all the people also doing crazy things that she has now become friends with, and so, so much more. My first day, she told me to show up at 11 am because of the jet lag (good thing she did, I barely woke up in time to get there by then). In my last internship, they talked to me for 20 minutes and set me off. That’s exactly what I expected to happen here. And yet, it was the complete opposite. She sat me down and we ended up chatting about life and work from when I got there at 11 am to when I left at quarter past 7! I am not exaggerating when I say that I did not open my computer and that we genuinely did speak for 8 hours straight. It was one of the most fascinating conversations that I have had.
Since, I have become fascinated with their mission and with trying to help them forward. I am coming at it with a very different perspective than what they have: that of the computer-science finance-bro. (I do not actually identify as such, but I think the relative comparison is pretty accurate.) My ideas have, accordingly, been pretty strange. Nonetheless, I am actually really proud of how it works. Because I am not just thinking of it from a human rights perspective, I can suggest ways that they can actually make money from companies that are doing malicious things, and in-turn fund more human rights work. It’s definitely unconventional, but I think that the mixing of diverse perspectives is actually fascinating and very important.
I was, however, surprised to see that they have already adopted a lot of next-gen technology (as far as I know what next-gen technology is). They have LLMs integrated into their workflows, they have a list of more than 3 different products (some of which I had never even heard of) to maximize security and privacy, and they have a CTO who has since become my idol (I have yet to meet him aside from the greeting we exchanged over video). I have always been interested in privacy and digital security, but it wasn’t until now that I finally got the opportunity to learn more about it. And from what I have learned, things are pretty messed up. As one example, the US Cloud Act—which even I, as a supposedly data-and-privacy-conscious individual have never heard of—makes it so that the US government can basically get any of your data if it is held with a US company. The fact that this is such a huge deal and so widely unknown goes to show how important it is to fight for our privacy.
I have now gone to work for a few days, in which I have been researching a lot of next-gen technology that I think might be relevant to the work that we are doing. Tonight, I am also going to see the next Germany World Cup game! When I asked my host father (I finally met him yesterday after the Deutschebahn train hack / delay made it so that he arrived at midnight — he is very nice) if he was excited about it, he replied in a very German fashion: “No, it does not matter if they win. We have already qualified.”
I am excited to see how my experience continues. So far it has been amazing!