Leading up to my first week at BallotReady, I felt concerned about being good enough. I have more soft skills than hard skills. I have a passion for politics, but I felt like an amateur. I quickly learned that there was no need to be so worried. In my first week, I met with my cohort of other interns, both data and engineering, and had meet-and-greets with the whole BallotReady staff. I instantly felt welcome despite the remote setting BallotReady is working in. It was a breath of fresh air to work with and be led by young people who are motivated by and interested in similar things. Thus far, as a data intern, I have primarily been aiding BallotReady’s Data Team in researching current officeholders across the U.S. as the organization seeks to expand their product to more of a year-round service, not just during election cycles. Data interns […]

I was given a tour of a normal looking office building, with tall grey cubicles and sounds of fingers steadily typing in the distance. With the pandemic, only a handful of employees are actually in the office. My lovely supervisor brings me around, introducing me, and I try not to show my nervousness. Amongst the chaos of this year, this is the most new people I have met in a really long time. At one point, I say thank you to someone after introducing myself, and I think about it for the next few days hoping she doesn’t remember how awkward I was. I have to remind myself this is part of the process, and it is okay.  At this point in my experience, I have been with Lutheran Social Services of Illinois (LSSI) for three-ish full weeks, but it feels so much longer. I have the mission statement stuck […]

I began my internship with the Heartland Alliance last Wednesday, 5/26/21, and have been met with a number of logistical challenges right off the bat. The Monday before my orientation I took the time to attempt to log in to the necessary online portals I would be frequenting as my internship is remote however I was met with screen after screen of dead links. It wasn’t until Thursday that I learned that the Alliance’s IT department was having major outages across several of their servers. Because of this I have thus far been unable to begin many of the tasks of my internship such as reaching out to clients and writing and logging case notes. All communications and video calls with my team have also had to transition from my Heartland Alliance email to my school email that I have access to. Needless to say this has been quite the […]