Regrets

Although I did get to do a lot here in Washington, there are some things I didn't get to do, and regret it. One thing that surprised me during orientation was the fact that it is fairly easy to go and watch live arguments at the Supreme Court. Essentially, all you have to do is go early to line up at the Supreme Court in the morning and you can go in and watch the live proceedings. Since photography is not allowed within the courtroom this really is a unique experience that you cannot do back in Claremont. Most employers seem as if they would be flexible enough to allow the interns to take off a day, or simply a morning to go to the Court. If you work on the Hill this is also particularly easy because it is directly across the street from the Capitol.

Another regret that I have is not going to the Kennedy Center, I didn't find out until about halfway through the semester, but apparently during the week there is free entertainment. I unfortunately did not get the chance to go. But if I had to do it over again, I would certainly tried to organize a group outing to the Kennedy Center.

Housing

One of the differences between the DC program and living back on campus is that there are no dorms in DC. So instead of deciding whether to live in North Quad, Mid Quad, or South Quad, you instead have to decide where to live within Washington, DC (or possibly outside of Washington DC). I lived in an apartment with Carlos and Jenny. You can see a video of it here.



There are several different options you have to consider:

Is it furnished?
Are utilities included?
Is it close to the CMC Office (Corner of 17th and L Street NW)?
Is it close to your job?
Is it close to the Metro?
Is there a supermarket nearby?
Can it fit everybody you plan to live with?
Is it in a good part of town?

The apartment we lived in had been used the semester before by some CMC students while they were on the program. I highly recommend doing this. It is helpful to know from someone more trustworthy than a random landlord whether or not the apartment is any good.

In addition to our apartment, there were two more groups of three people, one living fairly close to us and the other living in Southeast near the Capitol. There were then two people living on their own, Ben F. lived in an apartment in Virginia and Mike Whatley lived in housing provided by the Heritage Foundation (although you don't have to actually work for Heritage to live there, as Mike did).

It is best to get a furnished apartment (as everybody this semester did) because you do not have to worry about buying or renting all the furnishings for the apartment. That can tend to get more expensive than you might think as me and my apartment mates discovered this summer. You have to remember plates, silverware, couches, tv, lamps, sheets, beds, etc..

Pros and Cons of Interning on the Hill

As always you can go to the group's flickr page for more photos.

Kristen Mallory asked me to do a post about the benefits and drawbacks of interning on the Hill. I have to say that I loved my internship in Rep. Schakowsky’s office. Not only was it cool to intern in a small office like that, but an added bonus was the fact that she represents me in Congress. It was nice to know about the specifics of the district for the office in which I was working. With that said, I will say that from what I have heard from people I know that have interned in other Hill offices that it seems to be a mixed bag in terms of the quality of internships on the Hill.


I think that mine was great. In other offices, interns sometimes will only answer phones, sort mail, and write a couple of responses to constituent letters. At my internship I did not have to sort mail, and only had to do the phones for maybe one or two hours a week (which actually was surprisingly enjoyable). I also got to sit in on staff meetings. My office held two staff meetings a week, one was without Schakowsky, before she got into the office for the week, and the second one was to brief her on the upcoming hearings, legislation, and to get her feedback on how she wanted to proceed. Some other people that I know that I talked with were surprised that the office let interns in on staff meetings (and the office that I am in now does not let interns into staff meetings). I got to experience how the staff interacts with their boss, and how Members make decisions on various topics behind closed doors. It was a great “behind the scenes” experience to see how members act candidly when they are not interacting with the general public.



The people in my office were also great about making sure that I got to do substantive work as well as experience things I may not have been able to otherwise. The staff took me to the House floor, I got to be the only intern at a meeting of about twelve Members and Justice Sotomayor (which I blogged about earlier), got to sit in the gallery during the healthcare vote in the House late on a Sunday night (which I also blogged about earlier), and Rep. Schakowsky used my name and my “story” in the opening statements of a committee hearing. Of course, I had to do some typical Hill intern duties: organize a filing cabinet, take some flags to the flag office, and make copies. I did however get to do some pretty substantive work. During the Toyota scandal, the staffer who usually handles consumer protection had a lot on her agenda, so I got to help out and was the only intern at the briefings held by the Toyota lobbyists. I then got to write up notes and some potential questions for CEO Jim Lentz and the Secretary of Transportation. Of course, I was not the lead staffer or the one making decisions on what types of questions she would ask, but I did feel as if I got to have an impact on the process, and at the very least I got some good face time on C-SPAN and at least one news broadcast.



In addition to this, I got to be involved in the process for picking projects for appropriations requests for the district. Again, as an intern, I wasn’t picking which project would receive funding, but I did get to help review and summarize each project in order to help present it to my boss and to put on the website. The final main project of the semester was President’s Fiscal Commission to which the Speaker appointed Schakowsky. For the last month or so, I did research on various members of the commission and what their positions were in addition to various proposals to help lower the deficit and the national debt. This helped me develop a potential topic for my thesis.

Orientation Day 4

As always you can see more on the group's flickr page.
Sorry for the long delay between posts.

Our fourth and final day of orientation started bright and early with a 8:30 tour at the Pentagon. Getting off the Metro, you could tell that this wasn't a normal Metro Station. We were greeted at the top of the escalators by a Police Officer with a some sort of scary looking automatic rifle. After going through security, we met up with CMC and program alum TJ Devine (on the left in the picture below). In addition to setting us up with the tour, he helped Ben F. get set up with his internship at the Defense Department. We were split into two groups for the tour, which was given by members of various military branches. My tour was given by someone from the Air Force and one person from the Navy. We did quite a lot of walking. Although most of the time we spent was in the hallways (people do indeed work there), we learned a lot of fun facts about both the military and the Pentagon itself. For instance, the Soviets used to think that the building inside of the Pentagon rings, was some sort of nuclear bunker, when in truth it was a hot dog stand.

After the tour, we went to a local shopping mall and Costco to pick up some things for the various apartments before our lunch with CMC and program alum Andy Barr from the Politico. We needed to drop off the items before lunch, so we stopped by Ben's apartment and got a nice look around. We went to Cosi for lunch, which CMC was nice enough to pay for. We met up with Andy there and headed over to the offices of the Politico.It turns out Politico shares facilities with the local Washington ABC station. At the Politico, we got to meet in the executive meeting room. Andy talked to us about the always evolving news business and how Politico is adapting to it. He brought in a couple other writers. One was in charge of the new "Politico 44" which focuses on the Obama administration. He discussed how the project started, and how the focus of it has evolved since the beginning. He mentioned that they try to get Obama news up on the website within 2 to 3 minutes of it happening. We also talked with Anne Mullins who is the gossip columnist for the Politico. She told us how she got to her position and what it entails. She likes to know who is at what. Whether it is a congressman at a fundraiser or an important staffer at a cocktail party.

After our time at the Politico, our orientation was officially over. However, the CMC Alumni Association in Washington was nice enough to buy us tickets to the Wizards/Clippers basketball game on Sunday, the 24th. It was nice to talk with alumni working in Washington before we started our first days at work.

Orientation Day 3

As always, you can go to the group's flickr page for more pictures. Also, sorry this blog post is a bit lengthy.

For the third day of orientation, we went to the Capitol for an 11:45 tour with program alum Tyler White (far left in the above picture). He currently works in Congressman Jerry Lewis' office. During the program he interned on Capitol Hill, but for a different Congressman. After asking us about our living arrangements and catching up with Dr. Spalding, we started the tour by going up to the House Gallery, where we could watch as Congressmen cast votes and simply chatted amongst themselves. Before we went in we had to surrender all our electronics, including Tyler who is a staffer. He explained to us some of the traditions of the room: no assigned seats, the rotating Speaker, the cloak rooms, etc. Next we went to the rotunda (which you can see in the picture above). On our way he explained the paintings, and the statues, including the new California statue of Ronald Reagan. As we were standing there, learning about the room, in walked a couple of Capitol policemen, a photographer and an entourage of people.


It turned out it was California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. He had come to take a picture with the new Reagan statue. The room was divided in the middle with a roped off walkway. We happened to be the only group on the Governator's side. As the groups in the room pressed up against the ropes, we got a closer look, and presumably got into many people's pictures. After that we walked to the "Center of Washington". In the middle of the room, there was a compass built into the ground. It was the original center of Washington, DC when the City was first designed. The picture below is us standing around it, and some with our feet on it.
After that it was time for lunch in the House Member's Dining Room. The next week when I handed the "CMC Washington Packet" to my supervisor with the orientation schedule she remarked that she had only eaten there once or twice in her ten years, so this was quite the experience. On our way there we saw Dennis Kucinich hurry past us and as we were waiting to be seated, out walked Secretary of Veteran Affairs Eric Shinseki. Unfortunately, we don't have any pictures. But we were joined by a CMC and Washington Program alum whose name escapes me at the moment. She also worked in Mr. Lewis' office and had interned there during the program. We talked about how CMC had changed since they had been there, Claremont Hall, the Kravis Center, and even the Pomona construction blocking our walk to Frary. We talked about the long-term plans for CMC renovations as well as their suggestions for the future of the program. Not only did we get great food, but it was covered by CMC (always a plus).


After lunch, they took us to Congressman Lewis' private meeting room (I think I got the name of the room right) (Picture above). It had an amazing view of The National Mall. After we were done, we went to the steps of the Capitol to take a couple of group pictures. I already posted the picture before, but I figured it's a pretty good picture, so I would post it once again.


After that we had a little break before we went back to the office for our first class with Professor Haskell, who works at Georgetown during the day. He handed out the syllabus, gave us free copies of our textbook (which he wrote), and showed off his impressive random knowledge of all of our hometowns. After class was over, we all headed home for some rest before our early 8:30 am start time the next day.

Orientation Day 2

As always, you can see more pictures at the group's flickr site.

The second day of orientation, we met at 12:45 inside the Supreme Court. Myself, Jenny, Carlos, and Angela got there a little early and apparently the court was still in session and the Great Hall was closed off, so we had to go in through the side handicapped accessible entrance and didn't get to go up the steps that you see in all the movies. We were then escorted to one of the conference rooms by a member of the Supreme Court's police force. We waited there to meet with Elizabeth Papez, a law clerk for Clarence Thomas. She came with a couple of her colleagues and we talked about the types of cases that come before The Supreme Court and the thought process that goes into making the decisions.


We then got a tour of the building by the Curator of the Supreme Court. She showed us the courtroom where they argue cases. It was surprisingly small and the lawyers stand very close to the the justices. The curator gave us a rundown of what all the pictures meant and details such as where the President sits when he visits, and the seats that are designated for guests of the Justices. After that we went to the the Meeting Room for the Supreme Court. In the past it used to be used for meetings with the Justices, but recently it is just used for press conferences, photo ops, and meetings for outside groups. Our last stop was the chambers of Justice Clarence Thomas. It was cool to see go behind the scenes of the Supreme Court and see where the Justices work. We saw that his office was decorated with various college football paraphernalia. Before leaving we got a picture on those famous steps which you can see above.

I was surprised that you don't need a pass or anything to get into a Supreme Court case, instead you just have to be one of the first people in line. For the big cases some people camp out the night before, but for others you can just show up at about 8:30am (They start hearing cases at 9 am).

We then had a little break, a couple of us went to a little deli near the Capitol and Supreme Court to grab a late lunch before we headed back to the CMC office for a "Panel on professionalism and working in Washington."


Giving the presentation were Vanessa Carter and Nick Piatek who were both on the program in the Spring of 2006. Joel Malina from Wexler and Walker was also there. Although Joel didn't go to CMC, he has supervised a Washington Program participant every semester for the last 9 or so years. This semester Meredith is working there. The panel told us what to expect as an intern. We are indeed at the bottom of the totem pole. We were told good strategies for making sure we did substantive work while we were at the office. We were also told the proper way to interact with our bosses. We were also given tips on how to handle our internships along with our classes. It was good to get the perspective of both program alumni and bosses of people who have been on the program.

Orientation Day 1

I think I covered everything I can think of in terms of what you do in Claremont in preparation for the Washington Program. I'll add anything if I can think of it, but I figure I should tell people some things that they will encounter once they are in DC on the program.

Orientation is a 4 day program, and instead of trying to guess what goes on at a generic orientation (the events change slightly every year), I'll just give you a rundown of what happened at our orientation.

Although most of orientation was filled with trips to various sites around Washington, the first day was spent entirely at the CMC office. It started at 10:30 in the morning with Dr. Spalding welcoming us all. She handed out packets, we went over the schedule for the week, and got a little tour of the office (I'll have a post about the office later).

We then got Potbelly sandwiches, paid for by CMC (One of several lunches picked up by CMC during the week). Professor Haskell joined us for lunch. We went around the room and introduced ourselves for him, he displayed his impressive knowledge of our hometowns as well as his knowledge of local eateries.

Then was one of the more interesting parts of any orientation to which I have ever been. We got a "Session on safety and security in Washington, DC." We weren't really sure what to expect, we got a 6 foot 4 inch ex-marine by the name of Ken Barksdale. We learned about a CMC safe house that we were supposed to go to if the city of DC was evacuated. We learned how to react if someone grabs us, tries to use a knife, tries to use a gun, and grabs us from behind. He had us stand up in a circle, and practice the self-defense moves on him. So, we should pretty much be able to handle everything. Before he left, he gave us a CMC emergency packet, with a map to the safe house and what to do in the case of pretty much every different situation possible. He was one of the more interesting characters we encountered. As CMC Celeb Isaac Goldberg put in his recent Forum interview about his favorite unknown CMC tidbit:

"That the CMC Washington D.C. Program has an ex-Navy Seal in charge of student safety. He once told me, 'If you use the pepper spray, empty the can.'"

At the end of the security presentation, we got bright red emergency bags, which had boxed water, hand crank radio and flashlight, light stick, mask, goggles and more.

We ended the day by having our first class, Government 125 on Liberal Internationalism. We went over the syllabus and the expectations for the semester. We were each assigned a day to lead class discussion. The first presentation should be coming up next week from Carlos and Isaac.

Finding Housing

Besides the internship, the other major thing to find is housing. Here is the official description from the Washington Program about the housing situation. Professor Pitney also has a webpage on housing. On it he posts some great links to websites that will help you find housing. It's a great resource, and I wish I had been aware of it when I was looking for housing. This semester, Mike is staying at housing provided by the Heritage Foundation. To stay there, they make sure that you agree with their political opinions. Here's another website that I used to help find housing. It provides links to furnished housing.

Whether or not you decide to choose furnished housing is another issue that you have to face. "Furnished" can mean a lot of different things. This is something that they will address at on-campus orientation. It could mean anything from providing a table and chairs to our situation which had pretty much everything we needed from sheets for the beds to paper towels and dish soap. The other option is to get an unfurnished apartment in which case you would have to rent furniture. Nobody on this semester's program decided to go that route, and it would be significantly more difficult because you would have to worry about getting it all moved in.

Another consideration is location. This semester everybody but Ben is staying within the actual District. You can usually find cheaper housing in Virginia, but it is a little further from the CMC classroom and the Capitol/White House if you're thinking about working there. However, for people who are working at the Pentagon (Like Ben) it is more convenient.

You also have to consider how close your housing is to the metro in terms for getting to work. As Dr. Spalding articulated, you generally don't want to have to catch a bus to get to a subway station. When you're rushing in the morning that can be a little bit of a hassle. Our apartment is about 4-5 minutes from one subway station, and about 7-8 minutes from another one which has the line which goes to the Capitol. You should make sure your apartment is close to a metro station, and with the wonders of Google Maps, it is pretty easy to do that. You should also see how easy it is to get to the CMC office. In addition to classes, the CMC office is a nice place to go to when you need to do work for your research paper, do reading or work on any other applications you may have for the summer. The closest Metro stops for the office are Farragut West or Farragut North. The CMC office address is:

1101 17th Street NW
Suite 604
Washington, DC
20036

I'll put up a post about our apartment with some pictures in the future, and I'll try and convince the people living at other apartments to post something as well.

Finding an Internship Part 2

After letting the last blog post sit for a day, I realized I missed some important components of the internship search process.

First off, the career center is always available to look at your resume and give you tips about a cover letter. For the DC Program, you're supposed to include information about the program as well as contact information for Dr. Spalding.

The off-campus study office also has you submit the cover letters you sent to the potential internships, along with a resume. This helps you keep on the right schedule for finding an internship and makes sure that you are sending out enough applications. This is really helpful if you need deadlines in order to make sure you get things done.

One internship location that I should have mentioned is Wexler and Walker, where Meredith is interning this semester. This consulting firm has hosted a Washington Program student every semester for quite some time (I've heard 9 years?). So, they are an option that is known for providing substantive work for students and work well with the program. They are aware of the schedule and the demands of CMC students, so would be an easy transition to move into.

Dr. Spalding and the Washington program likes to make sure that all people are doing substantive work rather than just running to get coffee and grabbing people's lunches. They usually have pretty good direction on how to make sure that you can get this. They can tell you what places have good reputations and bad.

Also, at on-campus orientation you will receive this which tells you what NOT to do.

Finding an Internship

After the on-campus orientation, it's time to start looking for an internship. One of the parts of the conditions you agree to by going on the program is to sit down and have a meeting with Professor Pitney. There are a bunch of great resources available on campus, but one that always comes up is Professor Pitney's website. On there he has listed what seems like a couple hundred different places to find internships. He's even organized them for you. He has broken it up into different sections, including liberal/conservative. If you aren't able to find something from the long list of internships he has provided, Professor Pitney also adds all the participants to his listserv of internships. Everyday, he sends out listings and offers that have come his way. Professor Pitney has also done a great job of keeping up with alumni of CMC and alumni of the Washington Program. He will be able to point you to alumni working in various areas in Washington.

In addition, you can also find alumni connections via the career center's page. Also, pretty much ever Representative and Senator has an internship program (There aren't any that I know that don't). They are usually unpaid (I think I saw one that was paid for this semester). In addition, you can also work on some of the committee staffs. This semester, Mike Whatley is working on the minority side of the House Oversight committee. I'm working for my Congresswoman, Jan Schakowsky. It's cool to be able to work for my congresswoman, where the issues are relating to my hometown and have some knowledge of the district.

As I said, the congressional internships are mostly unpaid. However, in the private sector, it is more than possible to find a paid internship. While you won't be getting millions, the stipend will help cover the costs of living in a more expensive city than Claremont. For instance, as I said in an earlier post, Isaac has been able to get paid, get a free gym membership and get free lunches all semester. Also, with the recent Supreme Court ruling, things are looking up for lobbyists!

Whatever your interest may be, you should be able to find an internship that suits you.

On-Campus Orientation

After being accepted and deciding that you will go on the program, you have to tell the Office of Off-Campus Study that you are going go to go. It is not simply a box that you check off on a form, but instead you have to sign a contract. In addition to maintaining a minimum GPA, taking the right amount of classes etc. You also have to commit to get to know everyone else going on the program by attending all of the pre-departure meetings.

The first part happens the week after you are informed, that starts with a lunch meeting at Collins (In one of those private back rooms people don't usually use). Kristen Mallory and Professor Pitney start to give some basic information about Washington and helps get conversation going amongst all the participants. Professor Pitney even gives out a little Washington DC/Current events quiz. After you finish your Collins you walk over to Bauer Center. There you go over many topics, with both Professor Pitney as well as program alumni. They tell you the good places to live, help explain the DC public transit system as well as how to find good internships. Fid Castro even came and helped explain the process of finding housing and played some ice breaker games (You know, the one's you do during Freshman orientation, that you thought you'd never have to do again) so that everybody can get to know each other.

As the semester goes on, there are two more events, a dinner at the Ath and a final lunch at Collins. One of the ways that this gets you ready for DC is that there are no reminders sent out about the events, this is to help you keep to a schedule that you will have to face in DC, where they will not constantly remind you of upcoming events, similar to a semester in Washington.

The Application Process (Pt. II)

So after you turn in the application, it's time for the interview. One thing to keep in mind is that they expect you to wear a suit or at least a jacket with tie and khakis. This is something that Kristen Mallory stressed at the info session. If you're like me, you will have to borrow a lot of this stuff and maybe improvise a little (Ben Salzman's dress shoes, Kyle Shipley's tie, black baseball socks in order to have dark dressy looking socks and if anyone needs a lucky jacket contact Jason Rehhaut). But make sure you have all of this stuff ready to go for the interview.

At the interview will be members of the selection committee. For me it was Kristen Mallory, Beth Ricca, and Professor Pitney and Miller. With Beth Ricca no longer at the career services office, I'm not sure who will be taking her spot on the committee. In addition, there is also a student in the interview who has been on the program before. Different program alumni do different batches of interviews (I have heard of at least two different students sitting in on the interviews for this current semesters group of students). They will all ask you questions to expand on your application as well as completely new questions.

Once all the interviews are over, they are very good at quickly sending out the results to your campus mailbox. You will get an email when they have put the letters in your mailbox so that you know to go and check. In those letters they will also inform you if you were awarded either The Margaret Martin Brock Internship Award or the Claremont McKenna Internship Award. These are stipends that you will receive a check for once you arrive in Washington.

After that it is just up to you do decide whether or not to accept the offer.

The Application Process (Pt. I)

Dr. Spalding, the director of the program will be coming to CMC the week of February 1 and will hold an information session where she will be able to answer more questions about the application process and the program.

If you don't feel like reading the entire post (it's a little lengthy) here are some tips:
Although the statements may seem short, make sure you put a lot of thought into them as the entire selection committee will be reading the application.
If you're a person who ends up turning things in right before the deadline (turned in my CMC application with 7 minutes to spare) you want to make sure that you have enough time to get the passport-type photos. This can be an easy thing to forget and if you find yourself printing off your application with an hour to spare and realize that the only thing that you are missing are the photos, it can be nerve-wracking.
It is handy to have your recommendation writer provide a recommendation that you can not only use for the application but can also use it for internship applications.
Be sure to check out Professor Pitney's page on how to ask for a letter of recommendation.

The Application:
The application process for the Washington Program is pretty straightforward. It can be found online at the "Applicants" section of the official Washington Program website. The application for the Fall 2010 semester is due February 5 so anyone who's interested should get started. It's an 8 page application which may seem a little daunting, but it's definitely worth it. The program mostly consists of government majors, but there are certainly people from different departments. For example, this semester Jenny is an Econ-accounting major and is working at the accounting office of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC). Ben Harris is also working for the SEC. I had contemplated working for the national office of the Japan-America Society, so it is certainly possible to come to Washington even if you are not interested in American politics and if you are interested you should apply.

The first two parts of the application are fairly simple, just general personal information as well as the times when you would be free for an interview. After that, you have to put a little more thought into it.

Part III requires that you show that you have planned out your credits for graduation. Even if you don't end up applying, this is probably a good thing to do.

Part IV is a resume which career services will work with you to ensure that it will help you land an internship you want while you are in the district.

Part V has two statements that have you write about why you want to go on the program and describe the internships you want to do. You should begin to suggest a few internships that you find interesting. The other statement asks you to describe why you are prepared to handle the rigorous demands of the program.

Part VI is a couple of passport-type photos that you can get at a bunch of places.

Part VII is a transcript that CMC students do not have to worry about making arrangements (simply put your signature on the application). Students from the other 4Cs have to make arrangements to have their transcript provided to the selection committee.

Part VIII is a letter of recommendation. Pretty straightforward, but make sure you give your writer plenty of time to write the recommendation and submit it to the committee.

One other part of the application that you have to submit but doesn't have its own "part" is the "Dean of Students Clearance". This has to be submitted to the Dean of Students office and has the same deadline as the rest of the application.

Good Luck!