Rachel Ackoff Truman finalist from CA3/13/06Phoenix, AZIn the time between when I found out I was a Truman finalist and the interview, myconfidence levels fluctuated greatly. At times I was incredibly nervous and at others Ithought I “had it in the bag.” Sometimes I would tell myself how special Swatties are andhow we’re better equipped for the Truman competition than all those Californians Iwould be competing with. Sometimes I would worry myself into a tizzy about how Icould never know all the minutia of global trade law. Sometimes I’d feel really goodcoming out of practice interviews and sometimes I’d worry that I was way too radical andwould come off as an extremist (but I just kept reminding myself that Marissa Vahlsingwon last year and she was just as radical as me!). I think the fluctuation of confidencelevels was normal, and on the morning of my interview I was as calm as is humanly possible.When I first googled my panelists I freaked out. There was a Republican judge who wentto BYU, a venture capitalist, a Democratic politician who was pro-life, a “consultant”whose firm I couldn’t find any info on, etc. And I worried about how conservativeswould react to my radicalism (though I was planning on toning down my radicalism fromthe start – I didn’t want to come across as an anti-capitalist). But in the end, my panelistswere more liberal than I thought and except for my one “bad cop” experience (see below)everyone was very cordial.Random advice -- don’t stress about your outfit. I did. But then I ended up really happywith my outfit…so maybe stress a little. Whatever you do, pick something comfortable.1. The student global justice movement doesn’t even seem to understand the basics of trade policy. Is this a problem?2. What do you think the Seattle WTO Protests taught the American people?3. What were three policies that came out of Seattle?4. If you apply national standards to foreign expropriation claims under NAFTA thencorporations would lose the ability to sue for environmental legislation that harms their profits. You’re basically gutting CH 11. Is that correct?5. With MTBE it was environmentalists who originally wanted MTBE because theythought it would improve air quality. How can the companies be to blame when theenvironmentalists messed up?6. How are you going to bring all kinds of different interests together as a politician?

7. How can you make policy decisions in the face of so much uncertainty (like notknowing the ill effects of MTBE)?8. You care about global environmental issues but you want to be an elected official.What if your constituents don’t care? How can you make them care? If they don’t agreewith you what will you do?9. You wrote an article in the Swarthmore student newspaper about how ethicalintelligence is the ideal and how students are paralyzed by hypercritical intellectualism.What is ethical intelligence and what is hypercritical intellectualism?10. So you don’t believe in knowledge for its own sake? You don’t believe in intellectualcuriousity?11. I was expecting a “bad cop” panelist but I didn’t imagine my “bad cop” would bequite so bad. He really, truly was hostile. This was coupled with the fact that he asked methe only question of the entire interview that I didn’t know the answer to. “What are three policies or actions that Bush has taken that you believe were good?” I made the mistakeof saying “Wow, that’s a good question” and he said, “I know that. Don’t pander.” Thenthere was a long awkward pause while I tried to think and then I said, “To be honest, I’vespent a lot more time thinking about the things Bush has done that I don’t agree with.”But instead of anyone laughing, he just said, “Rachel, I want an answer. Three things -- boom, boom, boom.” So all I could think of were all the bad things so I decided to saythem as if I thought they were good. I said the No Child Left Behind Act, appropriatingmoney for our troops in Iraq, and the Central American Free Trade Agreement. Then heasked, “If you were to meet with Bush about something you think he did well what wouldyou say he should do better?” and I said, “Well, in his latest State of the Union Bush saidwe were addicted to foreign oil so I would tell him to invest in renewable energy…” Butthen he cut me off hostily and said, “I was asking of the three things you alreadymentioned.” So I said “I would applaud the No Child Left Behind Act but tell him toactual fund it fully because it’s not okay to mandate for schools and teachers to takecertain actions but not having the funds necessary to carry it out.”I think there may have been another question or two in there but I can’t remember.My closing statement went really well. I got pretty emotional (talking about my spiritualconnection to the Earth) but I didn’t actually start crying. I got really good vibes duringmy closing. The panelists were all smiling at me. And they all laughed when I said one of the things the Truman application process taught me is you have to spend more timedoing the good work that you do than filling out the application. Basically, I think they allliked me. I don’t know if they’ll think I’m qualified for the Truman but I think they likedme.After my interview I left the room and started to cry. I cried for maybe a half hour while Icalled my parents and friends. I’m not sure why I cried. I think it was because a) I wasfreaked out by the bad cop experience b) I had wanted my interview to go flawlessly and