By this time, I have just completed my third week of interning, and to say it has been a constant learning experience would be an understatement. This summer I am working at Ingenuity, an organization that not only raises awareness about the importance of a good quality arts education in the Chicago public schools, but also, it works to make sure that arts education stays in the schools and that everyone is benefiting from it from the research and data they collect from over 600 schools and 1,000 arts partners. Sounds simple enough, right?

At Valparaiso University, I am a Criminology and Political Science double major (and a theatre minor, but most people forget about that when I tell them my majors).  When I told everyone I planned to spend my summer working at an arts education organization, many people were confused. I got a lot of interesting thoughts on my decision, but the one that came up most frequently was “wow, your major and your internship are so different; why would you chose to do that with your summer?” To be honest, at first, I would just say I wanted a change of pace, but deep down I knew it was more than that. Recently, I have been working to get more involved in the theatre department at school, and the more involved I was the more it made me wonder if I wanted a career in the arts rather than the criminal justice field. As a result, I decided choosing an organization in the arts would help me decide.

At Ingenuity, I am the public affairs/advocacy/communications and media intern (they’re virtually the same thing, but I have been called all of them). With this task, I am not only in charge of helping with Ingenuity’s social media presence, but their public presence as well. In addition, I have been given the task of working to update their website this summer. This has been quite an adventure for me personally because I have never really done anything in either field. Nevertheless, I was eager to learn how to help the organization.

I am not going to lie, the first couple weeks were a little overwhelming. The Friday before I started, my supervisor called me to give me a basic run-down of what I would be doing in the office, but she also told me that the person who was set to be my supervisor had switched jobs and was no longer with the organization. Although she was incredibly kind in explaining to me how she was now going to become my supervisor and my tasks, I was terrified. Not only was I in a big city when I had pretty much spent my life in only suburbs, but now I wasn’t really quite sure where the summer would lead me. Luckily, my supervisor and the office I am working in was incredibly. Everyone has been welcoming and I could tell as soon as I walked in I had joined a really close group.

Everything in the office is very fast pace. Because the organization is ran by only seven full time employees and the population they serve is the third largest school district in the country, there is always something going on. I think that was one of the hardest things for me to adjust to—the other being working forty hours a week. When I started this internship, it had been about a month since I left my internship at the Federal Probation and Pretrial office. There I only worked five hours a day, three days a week, and for the most part, it was usually pretty relaxed. I would be given daily tasks, some I could finish that day, and others I couldn’t, but overall, it was pretty peaceful. Coming into a fast-paced office after having that tranquil experience was difficult at first, but I think I am finally getting the hang of it.

I will only be spending nine weeks with Ingenuity, and with the completion of my third week, I have completed one-third of my time. Since beginning, I have learned how to handle social media and how to organize the office to have a bigger social media presence. I have also learned how to edit the website and how to create the monthly newsletter.  In addition, I have been working in the advocacy field and have been doing research on possible topics for the advocacy institute that will occur in October. While it is a little weird to think about all I have done and how much time has gone by (time is really flying by!), I am excited to see where the next six weeks take me. If I have been able to complete all that I have in the short amount of time, I am eager to see what I will accomplish by the end of it.

“My name is Aaron, and I work for a lobbying firm”

I have always cringed when I heard that word. My teachers, parents, CNN and basically everyone had resolved to decry a whole profession as “unethical” and “corrupt.”

Even now, as I rushed to tell family and friends about my new job in D.C., veiled smiles said “you’re one of them now.” Upon my arrival in our nation’s capital, I had resigned to embrace my new role: a puppet, ruled by special interest.

Only Venn Strategies isn’t like that. There are no smoke-filled, back room meetings. The office isn’t filled with power-hungry D.C. elites or slaves to special interest. We don’t work to control government, we work to understand it.

The federal government is an incredible complex machine with lots of moving parts. As a government affairs firm, our job at Venn is to keep tabs on what’s going on and report the results to our clients. Weekdays days consist of tracking legislation, attending and reporting on congressional hearings, and compiling research at our clients’ request. I’ve come to view our work as not only necessary, but fulfilling.

Venn’s clients are primarily based in the healthcare and finance sectors. I am currently working on the health team (a nice non-controversial topic), conducting research into the field of healthcare and producing memos for our clients. After a few days of research I came to a realization: I am so glad that there are people that do this work full time. Having met with congressional staffers, I’ve more often than not found myself face to face with an individual my age; somebody with nearly identical levels of education and experience. There’s a poorly kept secret in Washington: congressional staffers, while underpaid and overworked, run this town.

Single lines in 80 page bills have the capacity to affect the lives of millions of Americans. Among those millions are not only my family, friends and neighbors, but people I have never nor will ever meet. Having experienced what analyzing policy looks like, I am relieved that experts like the ones at Venn do the work that they do. Using a heavily researched argument, Venn exposes these staffers (again, the “real” rulers of D.C.) to the fact based stances that they would never have the resources or time to discover themselves. With legislation passing through the halls of congress on a daily basis, I find myself more and more confident that our policymakers are being exposed to well-researched arguments as diverse as the constituents they represent.

“My name is Aaron, and I am proud to work for a lobbying firm.”