Undergraduate Admissions

I worked in the Senate on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. Senator Ted Kennedy is the Chairman, and I was able to work in his policy office that’s specifically devoted to labor and pension issues. It was a pretty amazing opportunity.

I’ve been passionate about the labor movement and working people, and I saw the credit internship program as an opportunity to see the practical application for the things I’ve been learning in my classes at the ILR School.

I grew up in the suburbs of Maryland, just outside of Washington D.C., and a lot of my friends had parents who were working in some aspect of the federal government. I wanted to go there and see what it was like. I wanted to get the experience of being an intern working on a Congressional staff, and it seemed like the best time would be to spend a semester during the school year.

Then it was just a matter of finding a committee that covers the issues I’m most interested in, and a Senator who I believe in and could feel passionately about working for. I narrowed it down to wanting to work on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee in the Senate or the Education and Labor Committee in the House. Senator Kennedy was my top choice, and hearing that I’d been accepted for the internship was really exciting for me.

I started the week before the first hundred hours of the new Congress. Everyone was working at a sprinting pace, and they were happy to have every hand that they could get. On my very first day, I was helping to prepare for the minimum wage debate. By my second day, I was sitting in on a meeting to help develop a message for the Employee Free Choice Act. I mentioned that I would be interested in following that bill, and I was able to become the lead intern for that issue. That meant going to the House to watch all of the press conferences and hearings on the bill, and going to briefings for hill staffers where Paul Krugman and the Economic Policy Institute explained the economic significance of the bill.

While I was working in Senator Kennedy’s office, I was able to help research and develop arguments for improving occupational health and safety, establishing a minimum requirement for paid sick days, reducing discrimination in hiring and pay, and the importance of giving workers a free and fair choice to join a union.

I volunteered to work as much as I could. I took each opportunity to try and prove that the Staff could trust me with a little bit more for each next project. Some of the things I was able to do were incredible, and I’m proud to be able to say that I did them.

I gained a lot from my internship. I knew that I’d like to work in the labor movement, but this gave me the opportunity to see if I was right for the job and if it was something I could see myself doing. One of the most valuable parts was just finding out that I loved the work. I had such a great time that I went back to work for another month over winter break. When I graduate, I know I’ll be coming back to the hill to work for a few years.

My experience in the internship showed me that this is absolutely something I’d like to do. I was directly using the research and knowledge that I’d gained in my classes. The foundation of the ILR School and the classes that I’ve taken helped solidify my values because I could discuss them, debate them and argue for them in an academic setting.

The ILR School is geared towards giving you an education that has a clear practical application, and the internship is a great opportunity to follow through with that. Everything you learn in the ILR School is an asset in a work setting, and the work experience from your internship is also valuable once you’re back at school.

The credit internship definitely helped me decide that Capitol Hill is a place where I want to be. It’s said that hill experience is one of the most important things to look for in a candidate for a job as a Congressional staff member. When I’m looking for a paid position as a hill staffer, I’ll be able to say that I know labor policy from the ILR School, and I have hill experience from my credit internship. It was an intense work experience that I thrived in and loved.