LISE CLAVEL

“The best thing about my job is getting to work with so many people. When I first

got into politics in 2008, I realized that my enjoyment of talking to people, working with them to solve problems, and helping them see different sides of a situation were all traits I’d employed extracurrically before, but never in a job. At work, I get my energy from being around coworkers, bouncing ideas off them, and working every day to figure out how to reach a common goal.

 

I totally lucked out and fell into politics. I was kind of floundering in 2007—I’d taught, I’d gone to grad school, I was working in education technology; but none of these felt like a career path for me—so I did what a lot of young, confused people do, and applied to law school. I was living in NYC at the time and wanted to quit my job and be someplace new for several months before I started law school, so I called up a friend who had done a ton of human rights work in West Africa. I thought he could put me in touch

with some people who would let me come volunteer. Instead, the friend convinced me to move to Charlottesville and work on his run for Congress.

(That was Tom Perriello.) Luckily I didn’t know much about politics at the time, because I wouldn’t have thought he had a chance (the guy we beat in 2008, Virgil Goode, had won his two previous races by 20 points).

 

I haven’t been back to camp in so long, but I think about it every summer and am so grateful for the experiences I had there. Camp was great for me because it was the first time I really met kids from different backgrounds and started to figure out that New York, New York, was not the only kind of place to grow up (and that in fact it’s kind of out of the ordinary!). I loved being outside, and I really cherished all the quiet time in nature. I made great friends at camp—every summer I went home with a new best friend—but I also took advantage of activities like Library that most other kids rolled their eyes at. I loved Church in the Pines and being with the whole camp in the Camphouse. I studied and wrote a lot of poetry in college; and I think the poet in me got started at ALC.

 

Here are some things I will never forget about camp, which I think about often:

1. “Your skin is your best raincoat.” Mostly I say this to people to irritate them when they complain about being wet.

2. Every time I address an envelope, I remember Jean telling us that if you write the zip code on a line below the city/state, the post office has an easier time delivering your mail, and it will get there sooner.

3. ALC was a place where the value of inclusiveness was real. In school, teachers talked about it and authority figures generally espoused it, but it wasn’t celebrated the same way that it was at ALC. I was always a pretty nice kid, but at camp I felt like it was important to be nice, and that’s something I’ve always kept with me.

4. I loved that ALC was all girls but that we didn’t spend much time talking about being girls (at least as far as I remember). We were just kids growing up, getting to experience a beautiful world together in a safe way.

5. I think I would still hate having to go in the lake every day.

6. I hope no cell phones are allowed at camp.