White House Reneges on Promised Internship

Chicago mom disappointed by sudden change of plans

A 29-year-old Chicago woman was all but packed for her trip to D.C. and the White House summer internship she'd been awarded.

Then on Monday night, Appreccia Faulkner got a message from a White House staffer saying that she had been turned down, after the office of correspondence accepted additional applicants and found there wasn't enough room for all of them.

"She was just very apologetic," Faulkner said of the woman who left the message.

Apology or none, she's very disappointed.

The mother of three children – 12, 5 and 3 years old – is hoping to join the Foreign Service and travel overseas after she graduates, according to the Chi-Town Daily News web site.  To that end, she intends to start school at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., to study global affairs.

That will be a big change from growing up in Roseland and Bronzeville; she currently lives in Auburn Gresham, Chi-Town Daily News reported. But Faulkner is ready for a change.

Since returning to school after several years of working in the banking business, she says she sees that she can do and be something else.

"(It's) important it was to get out of your comfort zone and see what’s going on in the world,” she says.

Her political science professor at Kennedy-King College says she can achieve her goals. Professor Ted Williams has taught Faulkner for the last three years.

“She is very engaging ... just seemed to have a real thirst for knowledge and learning,” Williams says.

The Web site says Williams credits "Faulkner’s strong Christian faith – he is the faculty advisor to the Christian student organization on campus and she is the group’s president – for helping her get where she is."

“It’s just consistent with her belief that she can do anything and it comes directly from her faith, her Christian faith,” Williams says.

Faith, hope and clarity are what Faulkner would like as she pursues her educational dreams. Clarity about what happened to her internship, especially.

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