Ainsely O'Connell ‘06

Major:

English & Political Science

Field site:

New York City Department of Investigation

O’Connell, an English and political science double major, is an executive editor of The Record, and also dabbles in creative writing and publishing. She writes for Scattershot, a student-produced journal on American politics, and the Williams Literary Review.

Last January, she did an internship with the New York City Department of Investigation (DOI). The DOI investigates reported cases of fraud, abuse, and corruption among the city’s public servants. It also launches special investigations into major incidents that involve the municipal government.

O’Connell worked on one of these special investigative teams. She was part of the DOI task force formed to look at the vast structure of nepotism that the Staten Island Ferry incident revealed. Unfortunately, that’s about all she can publicly disclose.

“Most of the information was confidential, so I’m afraid I have to stay mum on the details,” she said. “But for roughly the second half of the month, I worked with the DOI’s press secretary, writing short articles for the department’s newsletter and attending press conferences with the secretary and the commissioner (head of the DOI).”

O’Connell praised the New York Winter Study program’s mentor, Professor Jackall. “I’ve never had a professor so interested in my thoughts and my plans for the future as Professor Jackall. He invests himself in his students in a way that few others are able to do, and as a result, is able to teach you about the world itself.”

That world, O’Connell said, was perfectly encapsulated in her New York encounter.

“Williams-in-New-York offered an amazing opportunity to glimpse New York in all its cultural and artistic vibrancy,” she said. “I went to the ballet, the theater, and the opera; I wandered through the full spectrum of museum galleries; and I had an entire month to explore the city the best way—on foot. Between ice skating in Central Park, running through subway stations in high heels, walking the length of Brooklyn Bridge, and meeting friends at the bar in the Village where poet Dylan Thomas breathed his last, it was quite the Winter Study experience.”