Washington Learning Program Experiences
Jessica Kiefer – Press Office, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi
For journalism major Jessica Kiefer of Bloomington, Ind., the D.C. internship was a chance to merge her love of writing and politics. Kiefer worked as an intern in Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s press office, located in the nation’s capitol building.
Kiefer attended press conferences and receptions, where her duties included taking photographs and recording speeches to be transcribed and turned into press releases for Pelosi’s website. This gave Kiefer a front-row seat to the financial bailout and the presidential election.
“I was lucky to be there while it was going on,” Kiefer said, adding that the capitol building was much more exciting when Congress was in session.
Kiefer attended the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s post-election party, a VIP event in Washington.
“There’s nowhere I would have rather been when Barack Obama was elected president,” Kiefer said. “Everyone in the city was cheering. It was like New Year’s Eve in Times Square.”
Kiefer said she had been planning for the D.C. program since she heard her sorority sisters speak so highly of it her freshman year.
“I always knew I would go abroad at some point, but I felt this just really fit with my major and what I was interested in,” she said.
While she is not sure of future career plans, she said graduate school is most likely her next step after Butler. As far as what she’s gained from the program, which also includes two three-credit-hour classes and three one-credit-hour seminars, Kiefer said her communication skills have greatly improved.
“Confidence has really replaced intimidation,” she said.
Cavan McGinsie — National Geographic
Cavan McGinsie of New Palestine, Ind. has wanted to work for National Geographic magazine since he was a little boy. “When I was growing up,” he said, “my dentist would order the magazine so I could read it while I was waiting.”
So when he looked into Butler’s Washington, D.C., Internship Program and saw that he could work for National Geographic, he jumped at the chance.
The English major and journalism minor spent the fall 2008 semester in the District, working 9 a.m.–5 p.m., Monday through Thursday, as a fact-checker for the magazine. He also wrote entries for Geopedia — a National Geographic website that turns articles from the magazine into encyclopedia-style entries.
In addition to the experience of living and working in the nation’s capital, the internship taught him several valuable lessons. One is that fact-checking is an intensive process at a magazine like National Geographic. It’s not unusual for him to call halfway around the world to verify information before it’s published.
He’s also learned that most of the writers for National Geographic are freelancers. They’ve advised him to start his career writing for a small magazine or newspaper, and he said he’ll either do that or attend graduate school.
As for the highlight of the experience, McGinsie said this: “I came here for the internship — to work for National Geographic. So the highlight for me has been working for a magazine I’ve wanted to work for since I was a kid. I finally get to do something that’s been a dream of mine.”
Lauren Maxwell — Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission, Library of Congress
Lauren Maxwell of Naperville, Ill. stood her ground on the morning of Sept. 22, 2008, when the U.S. Mint unveiled new designs for the penny at the Lincoln Memorial. An intern with the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission, Maxwell was assigned to keep tourists off the memorial steps, so that news cameras had unobstructed views of the proceedings.
“Essentially, I was a very well dressed and overqualified bouncer,” Maxwell said. Her duties continued well into the evening, as she helped organize and deliver materials for a Commission meeting, and then assisted at a VIP reception and celebrity poetry reading held in connection with the penny unveiling.
Maxwell escorted reader and actress Joan Allen to a rehearsal and later presented Commission gifts to Allen and another reader, Law and Order star Sam Waterson. “This was quite a bit of fun. I had the perfect opportunity to talk to each and every one of the really impressive people there,” she said.
Maxwell’s more routine duties with the ALBC have focused on event planning and promotions of the 200th anniversary of Lincoln’s birth, a year-long national observance beginning Feb. 12, 2009. Working from an office in the Library of Congress, she’s helped the Commission’s six full-time staffers distribute more than 25,000 Lincoln Bicentennial posters to educators.
“Over time, I've been given more and more projects to do on my own,” she said. “I really feel like I have ownership of the work.”
A senior history major, with minors in Gender Studies and Spanish, Maxwell said interning in Washington has given her opportunities “to meet people and experience events that would never have been possible in Indianapolis or even Chicago.” After graduating from Butler, she plans to pursue a master’s degree in library science.
More information on the Butler University Washington Learning Program can be found here, or contact Program Coordinator Jennifer O’Shea.
Related Articles :
No Related Content Found