After finally retreating home from our nation’s capital, I have finally been able to reflect on the significance of my CAPS experience and what it has taught me. After working at Venn Strategies this summer, I have gained numerous professional skills and an overall deeper understanding of how politics functions in the United States. Working at a governmental affairs firm has provided me with a much more in-depth view of how our government operates and how policy is a constant battle.

As a general research intern at Venn, I was able to work on a variety of issues. I did research on the devastating maternal mortality rate in the U.S., a crisis where black mothers die at a rate 3 to 4 times greater than their white counterparts despite the socioeconomic conditions. I also had an ongoing project where I researched the upcoming revisions of the Dietary Guidelines. I learned about the importance of limiting the influence of big food and pharmaceutical companies, ensuring a scientific-based Dietary Guidelines for the country. These experiences, and many more, taught me the importance of knowledge and the necessity to be aware. In this current political climate, there seems to be an abundance of problems but only a number of solutions. Being able to watch congressional committee and caucus meetings, I discovered how much influence the American people have. There are many congresspeople who are passionate about solving these social and economic issues, however, their voice is constrained when they don’t have adequate support from their constituents. Working in Washington did confirm my suspicion that big money influences a large amount of how our government functions; however, there are politicians, lobbyists, investigator generals, and many others that a ready to change this norm. For a government to be representative of the people, the people must be passionate about being represented. There is a reasonable mistrust between the people and the government, specifically for minority groups. And while I and many others are unable to fully understand those experiences, that doesn’t mean that this isn’t the time to fight for their platform. It is necessary that our country allows everyone to be represented and more importantly supports them to be their own advocates.

My sociology education has made me critical of our society, but my CAPS experience has made me realistic on how to shift these social structures. Working in such a political environment showed me the significance of being aware and knowledgeable of current issues. There are a lot of underlying barriers that make it difficult for everyone to be represented, but my internship taught me that there are a lot of people trying to change that. Knowledge is a powerful tool, and if we want things to change this upcoming 2020 election, then this tool needs to be as accessible as possible for everyone.

Getting acclimated to Washington D.C. has been a much harder task than what I originally anticipated. Living in this city has pushed me to think more intentionally about my actions and how I process my environment. I’ve always viewed myself as an adaptable person, someone who is excited for change or the aspect for something new; however, the first week in this new setting did not go as planned.

On my first day of my internship I woke up early, partly because of the early eastern coast sunrise, but mostly because I couldn’t wait to start this new chapter in my life. After completing our morning ritual, my roommates and I headed for the metro train and were ready to take on our jobs in the city. We eventually all split off throughout D.C. to our job sites. Unfortunately for me, the next step of my morning was not my internship. When I arrived at what I thought was my internship, I regrettably discovered that the company’s address had not been updated online. After quickly searching through emails from my supervisor, I found an address in a company signature, clicked it, and entrusted apple maps to get me to work. Once I was able to redirect myself, hopping back on the metro, transferring trains, and taking a long walk to this new location, I came to another unfortunate realization. Apple maps had directed me across town in the middle of rush hour, when in actuality the new location for my internship was only a couple blocks from my original location. Being flustered with emotion, I tried to keep myself calm as I completed the walk of shame to my initial destination, a process that made me an hour late on my first day. As I sat on the train, angry at my phone for deceiving me, but even more angry at myself for not planning more thoroughly in advance, I tried to keep calm by reminding myself that I would now have something interesting to write in my blog post.

After I arrived to my first day a full hour late, exhausted and embarrassed, I had to quickly learn how to adapt to my semi-corporate job. Luckily I work with very kind, and hard-driven individuals who have been willing to help me learn from my mistakes, making this painful moment a learning point for me.

It’s okay to mess things up. You can still hold yourself to a high standard and make mistakes. When reflecting on my past experiences, I weighed the significance of the times I felt like things have gone wrong. Although its cheesy, I really do believe that you learn the most from your mistakes. However, this depends on how you process these mishaps. Typically I would describe myself as someone who is pretty self-critical – I am constantly rethinking choices that I have made and how I would change them now. This is not a productive way to live life. As I enter the adult world, I’m beginning to realize the importance of maximizing your time. If I ever want to be a positive ally for others in society, then I need to cut out the wasted time worrying about the past. Being an hour late to the first day of my internship is a very small mistake in the grand scheme of things, but this situation made me reflect on a larger problem. The biggest mistake you can make is questioning yourself and your choices when something goes wrong. In this small moment it was important that I didn’t stress over my setback, but instead focused on making my internship the best experience possible. I only have one summer in D.C., and if I want to maximize my time here then I need to accept the past and prepare for the future.

I’m incredibly grateful to Venn Strategies and all I learned there this summer!

Sitting at my desk on my last day at Venn

Finishing up my time as a CAPS Fellow has been a blur. I finished up my last day, packed up my apartment, and caught a 7am flight to Boston to meet my family. Now I’m back home in Wisconsin for a lengthy six days before blasting off to study abroad in Costa Rica for the semester. All that being said, time to reflect has been scarce. I’m still coming to terms with everything I learned throughout my CAPS experience but I’ve definitely seen myself grow as a person, both personally and in my career aspirations.

When I started at Venn, I knew I felt like I was in way over my head. I didn’t have a firm grip on what I was doing and at times I was drowning trying to learn everything at once. I felt incredibly unprepared about the work I was doing and thought everyone around me had it all together. After all, I was the intern and this was their actual job. I was turning in memos on topics I knew nothing about (ever heard of the Railway Securities Alliance? Neither had I until I started at Venn). I felt like a fraud—like at any moment my boss would come over and ask me what I was doing there. I adopted a sort of “fake it ‘til you make it’ attitude and it actually worked. After a few weeks I started to understand the rhythm of the company and started working on some projects I really enjoyed. I even made a work friend—something I thought only existed on sitcoms (Shout out to Nina—I miss our lunch break Sephora runs ☺). As I got more comfortable with my position my work also improved. I was able to step out of my comfort zone by participating in client meetings and offering feedback. My confidence grew and I felt more and more comfortable with the work I was doing and proud of the projects I finished.
Over the course of the summer I also learned a lot about the ins and outs of lobbying—it’s really not what it looks like on Scandal. It is more focused on building relationships and having ongoing conversations, finding people in government and showing them why they should care about the issue you are bringing forth. The work moves both extremely slow and extremely quickly. The bureaucracy of government means it can take years to get bills passed but client demands sometimes mean working around the clock to get results. Overall, lobbying is about making a difference. It’s about changing current policies to make them better for constituents and interest groups. I definitely came into the summer a little jaded about what the work would look like. Instead, I met clients passionate about policies that had a huge impact on themselves, their businesses, and their customers. The job of a lobbyist—or anyone working in policy really—is to make sure that people can have their voices heard.

That isn’t to say it all became easy—it isn’t. I didn’t always agree with the policies clients wanted change and I didn’t always agree with the means used to achieve it. When I started to get frustrated, I did my best to take a step back and focus on the larger vision of what I was doing. I was helping support a group that wanted to make their ideas and goals known to their elected officials. And that, I think, is pretty fulfilling.

Caroline and I posing outside of an office cheering on the Caps!

C-A-P-S LET’S GO CAPS! This was the constant refrain around DC and outside Capital One Arena last Thursday night as fellow CAPS member Caroline and I watched the Capitals bring home the Stanley Cup. It was incredible to see the energy and watch the city come alive around the event. D.C. is an amazing city, vibrant and overflowing with political energy and I have really enjoyed my time here so far. 

The cheering refrain was also a constant reminder of my CAPS internship and the reason I’m able to have these experiences this summer. I’m interning with Venn Strategies, a government relations and public affairs firm in the heart of Washington, D.C. I just finished up my third week and it has been a whirlwind. I am a part of two client teams based around tax and infrastructure, two things I knew very little about before arriving here. It’s been humbling to realize how many things I don’t know. At Valpo, I think of myself as a fairly intelligent and capable person and I really dislike asking for help. At Venn, I’m learning that being smart can mean asking for help, and that double checking to make sure I’m doing a project correctly means not looking bad if I finish it and it has been done wrong. My coworkers have been incredibly helpful and willing to teach me about things I’m still not sure of. I’ve really appreciated their patience as I learn the basics of writing policy memos for clients and over hearings on topics from railways to tax structure.

One of the best experiences I’ve had so far was participating in the Center for Reproductive Right’s State Summit. CRR is a client of Venn’s and I helped to organize the materials and prepare for the summit. The night before the event I attended a reception where I got to meet Congressman Joaquin Castro (D-Tex.) and several other important players in the reproductive rights field. The reception took place on the roof of the Newseum with a gorgeous view of the Capitol and surrounding area. 

At the CRR reception on top of the Newseum

The next day I attended the summit as an assistant to my coworker managing the event. I got a firsthand look at everything that goes on behind the scenes to put on a large event (this summit was for 200 people!) I have a new respect for anyone who has ever stuffed folders or made name tags after seeing how much work it takes.  When we had gotten everything under control, I was able to participate in the summit and listen to panels on maternal mortality and non-profit cooperation and alliances. CRR hosts this summit every year to empower state leaders in the reproductive justice movement. Their hard work is really inspiring and gave me a lot of hope for the future. Watching the news and looking at social media, sometimes the world seems like an incredibly negative place. However, as I watched these strong women encourage and support one another, I felt empowered and was reminded that I too am able to make a difference. It was a really interesting day and seeing it all come together helped me to understand the importance of the work that I’m doing here.

All together, I’m definitely achieving the goal I set for myself of understanding what lobbying looks like. While I had a general idea at the beginning of the summer, I was aware that I had probably watched too much Scandal to have an honest picture. My coworkers have showed me, through taking me to meetings and explaining goals and plans to me, how cooperation and honesty (not blackmail) can help make real policy changes happen for their clients. I’m having a blast here in D.C. so far, and can’t wait to see how much I learn and grow over the next seven weeks.