Thank You Letter

Dear Carla, Nick, Kristen, Renee, Rob, Sean, Adam, Justin, and Rep. Richard Hanna,

I have gained so much valuable experience from this internship and I am forever grateful for the opportunity to serve in the office. The work, no matter how small, has taught me so much about myself, the work I want to get involved with, and ultimately how I foresee my future career aspirations.

I cannot begin to acknowledge how priceless each of your advice during this internship has been for my life. I truly appreciate how much effort you put into my work in your office. I felt valued and respected throughout the internship and I can not begin to say thank you for that.

No other students that intern have had the opportunities that have been given to me. Once again, I hope that some day I work with you all and I know that because of this great experience I will hopefully work on the hill again.

Once again, thank you so much for all your valuable expertise and insight. I hope see you all again soon!

Thank you,

James Macdonald.

Important Things I Have Learned While Interning

I learned so many things from my internship in the Office of Representative Richard Hanna in Washington D.C. I have never experienced so many different unique opportunities that have furthered my professional career. I hope all that I have learned will eventually further any job aspirations I attain in the future.

One of the most beneficial things I learned while I worked for Rep. Hanna were the inner workings of a congressional D.C. office. I feel as though I could go to hill after I graduate and know how have all the different jobs in a congressional work. My internship taught me the basics of what my first job on the hill would look like, a staff assistant position. I learned how to answer phones properly and professionally, write briefs and congressional reports, order and receive flag requests, prepare for various congressional briefings that the Representative is attending, and lastly, how to input and write letters through the congressional letter writing software.

I learned how the professional world truly works and I saw how congressional offices move delegate the various tasks among the district office and the D.C. office. I witnessed countless amounts of hearings and briefings that taught me about so many different topics ranging from Medicare insurance to rights for women in poverty stricken countries. Overall it was an amazing experience I gained so many different valuable experiences.

Career Services 2

Last Friday I attended a cover letter and interviewing training class, which was an extremely important lecture for me to attend because my resume can always benefit from help.  I learned several things from this training during the cover letter portion I learned that you should include language in your cover letter that is listed in expected skills in the job posting. You should always use very specific examples and highlight past jobs that relate to the job you are applying for. I learned my cover letters always needs to be tailored to each specific job I am applying to. My last paragraph in my letter should always include my goals and passions as well. Lastly, I learned that generally anything I send should be saved as a PDF so that my documents don’t format weirdly on another person’s computer. For an interview, I learned I needed to research the company that I applying too and specifically people in the company that could be interviewing me. They said I should always develop some questions before I go to the interview and have them ready to ask in order to show that I am interested. Practicing seems to be the best way to prepare for interviews and preparing answers to common questions is incredibly important. During the interview, I learned how important it is to discuss your past experiences and to be extremely specific throughout every example you are explaining. It was incredibly informational and I am happy to have gone to it.

Last Days

My last days working on Capitol Hill has been extremely tough because of how invested I was in my office. I have grown to really enjoy working a typical workday and I feel like my work has real importance. I went to my last briefing this last week and I realized how fortunate I was to be able to go to so many different hour-long lectures on such various topics. I have realized that this job is really what I want to do when I graduate which has been amazing feeling. I truly love public policy and see it in action. My office has done a wonderful job at including me in the work, which has contributed to my strong connection with my office. Even though it was my last week, I have been assigned some major projects. My favorite project this week was figuring out which office we should move to and which our strategy to getting a better office lottery number. I helped get our lottery number for the lottery and then when our number came up for the lottery I had to run to each different office we were considering and take pictures for my supervisor. I was incredibly happy to help with this project because it was a chance to run around the capitol grounds to many offices and since it was timed it gave me a bit of an adrenaline rush. Overall this week has been busy which has kept me from being overly sad about this experiences end.

CNN Headquarters

I got the opportunity to go to CNN headquarters and watch several broadcasts of their nightly news. My mentor is currently a producer for The Lead and invited me to watch not only his broadcast live but also Wolf Blitzer’s show and Candi Crowley’s show. When I got to the studios I was immediately overtaken by presence of the studios. The space is massive and completely high-tech. The office spaces are all lowly lit because the studios need to be the only area that has bright light in the area. I was immediately brought to the studios of The Lead, which was already broadcasting. Jake Tapper was giving an interview with the man who shot Osama Bin Laden. I was shocked that I was able to witness this live and first-hand. I then was moved to the back studios where at least 30 people were all doing very specific jobs for the show. I spoke to the person who changed the graphics throughout the program and she told me how important and detail-oriented her job was, I also spoke to executive producer who seemed very relaxed but at any given moment immediately would shout that something was wrong. After the broadcasts were done I sat down with two different producers and asked all the questions that I had for them in regard to having a career in broadcast news. It was an extremely exciting and eye-opening experience.

Strengths in my Organization

Working as an intern in the House of Representatives has its benefits. The House of Representatives is a incredibly powerful force in our county because it creates and enacts policy that effects everybody in the country, and even the world. The house can advocate and vote for war or peace, create programs that benefit many people, and work for the constituents that they represent. I would argue that the House of Representatives have some of my most powerful responsibilities in our country. Currently, the house does not have a strong ability to create much change due to political gridlock and partisanship. The house’s best strengths are their ability to advocate for specific constituents. I feel as though my work really helped many people in the office I worked for. My office was dedicated to serving others, which I found to be incredibly powerful because many don’t feel the House does an adequate job. If I were to ever be a member in the House, I would make sure to continue to work for my constituents. I would try to get more legislation passed as well but I understand why the house is so divided now. My boss (the representative) works hard to listen to his constituents and consistently works to benefit the people in his district. I really value how much attention he gives his interns as well because it makes my experience so much better. This experience has taught me the importance of valuing your employees and specifically interns. I know that if I ever have interns in my office I will give them the most respect I possibly can.

Briefings on the Hill

Sometimes my internship requires me to go briefings that happen around the capitol grounds that one of the legislative assistants or directors need me to go too. I really love to go these events around the capitol grounds because it provides an opportunity to learn about something new and exciting. Over the course of my internship I have been given so many lectures on so many diverse topics. These topics range from childhood eating disorders to the benefits of soy products to the hearings on the secret service. So many briefings happen daily on the hill. It is actually amazing because these briefings require outside funding and outside support in order to be given in the capitol and to have such range of diverse topics really is an ode to the diversity on capitol hill among the representatives and senators that invite the briefings to happen.

           

Often the best part of a briefing is the food options. They seem to always have so many different types of food at each briefing. Much like college, lobbyists know that food is one of the only ways to get employees to attend briefings. They feed the employees while also giving the employees information on the topic. Sometimes it is sad though because people will often only come to get food, which is disrespectful to the lobbyist that has put a lot of effort into the presentation. I try to always be as professional as possible during briefings. They are probably one of the most interesting parts of my day.