(The following BLOG post is by Jessica Wood, Senior, Public Policy, who describes her process in obtaining several internships. Her essay has been edited for space, and the emphasis on key points (phrases in bold) has been added by the editor.)
When a potential employer looks at your resume, what do they see? When I was first putting together my resume in high school, I realized that other classmates were involved in more clubs and had more experience to add to their resume than I did. This was also around the time I realized how important diversity and unique experiences can be in terms of accomplishing goals.
I took a leap, and on March 1, 2008, I attended a campaign meeting for Barack Obama. I had a lot of energy and time on my hands, and the Obama primary campaign gave me an outlet where I could be a great leader and do something that I really believed in. In a few short weeks, I moved into leadership positions.
The, on my first day of classes at the University of North Florida, I ran into the Field Organizer for the Obama Campaign. Within a few days, he offered me a full-time internship. I put all of my time and energy into the campaign once again, and it showed.
I was assigned leadership immediately, and was one of five people in North Florida asked to help the Secret Service when then-Senator Barack Obama came to Jacksonville the day before the 2008 general election. This was my third occasion meeting Obama, and this time it was in a very small group where we could ask questions and comment on his policies. We also got a tour of Obama’s private plane after we had escorted luggage of the media and campaign staff onto the plane.
This internship was incredibly demanding and included everything under the sun. It was also a gateway to three other campaigns that I worked on all over the country.
One of my favorite campaigns was one in which I got a free flight, housing, and food to work on a campaign for a month in California. I would never have had this opportunity if my Field Organizer did not recognize my previous hard work and pass my name onto a colleague of his.
In 2009, having met with the Duval County (FL) Supervisor of Elections a few times the previous year, I emailed the Supervisor and asked if I could intern for him. He said that he had never had interns before but he would be interested in seeing the outcome. During this internship, I worked on voter registration projects and was able to meet with foreign diplomats. To this day, this internship runs closest to my aspirations and I value the work I did at the Supervisors office extremely highly.
One of my professors at University of North Florida, Ambassador Nancy Soderberg, lived in DC part of the week and repeatedly told us about all of the amazing internships available in DC. I have always loved the city, and talked to her about where she suggested I apply.
She told me that I needed to research all of the different types of internships and decide for myself so I researched a lot. I decided to apply for the White House internship, US Congress, and US Senate. Ambassador Soderberg, having some close connections with the White House told me she would write the letter of recommendation. I was accepted to the US Congressional Internship with former Congressman Sestak. I was able to get a scholarship that was just enough to allow me to complete my internship and have a successful summer in DC.
My tasks as a congressional intern ranged from answering incoming calls to researching legislation, and conducting Capitol tours. My favorite moment of the entire internship was when I was working on a letter to some constituents about the CARE Act of 2010. The Legislative Assistant who worked on health care was extremely busy due to the passage of the health care bill and had not kept up on the CARE Act. I met with him and explained that there were few differences between the CARE Act of 2009, which the Congressman co-sponsored, and the CARE Act of 2010. Right after our conversation, he called the Chief of Staff and the Congressman,who then co-sponsored the CARE Act of 2010. So, I was responsible for Congressman Sestak’s initiative to co-sponsor the Act, and it was probably my biggest accomplishment of the summer.
I had a lot of research to do before deciding on my next internship in Harrisburg. I used the Public Policy internship directory and researched all of the groups before applying for an internship with three lobbying firms.
I chose to intern with Clark Resources based on the email conversations that I had with the internship coordinator and the information on their website. Interning with Clark Resources turned out to be a great introduction into lobbying firms and state politics. My favorite part of the internship was having access to candidates running in high-profile races like Tom Corbett, Pat Toomey, Ron Buxton, Tim Holden, and others. It was the first time that I voted with complete certainty, having had personal conversations with each of the ten candidates on the ballot.
During this internship, I also had the opportunity to travel around the state and meet with legislators and groups like the Marcellus Shale Coalition. And before each of our meetings, I was able to prepare and do research to better understand the problems and the solutions that we were lobbying for.
In my last month at Clark Resources, I started applying for other internships. I ultimately decided on Pennsylvania Legislative Services (PLS). The experience was valuable as I learned how to report in a non-biased and informative way, but it was extremely difficult. After attending a committee meeting (that can last hours), PLS reporters must immediately go to their computers and type up the story so that the clients can receive it by the late afternoon. Some days the stories would take me hours to complete, even longer than the actual hearings in certain cases.
I thought the work was draining and definitely not for me, but I did learn a lot about what was going on in the Capitol. And I had the opportunity to see the Governor sign his first bill, HB 377, one that I had heard the legislature debate months prior.
Written by Jessica Wood, Senior, Public Policy, June 2011.
(Editor’s note: Jessica next had a summer 2011 research internship with Project Vote Smart in Philipsburg, Montana.)