I spent my Spring 2010 semester working as in intern for the 2010 legislative session with the Indiana Republican Representatives.<\/p>\n
A typical day included arriving at 8:30.\u00a0 At 9am, I would go to the House Chambers and organize the desks of all 4 Representatives on my case load.\u00a0 I got to know each member personally and got unique insight into their personal views on issues.\u00a0 After organizing the desks, I would go over daily schedules with the Reps and run any last minute errands for them (making copies, sending messages, placing phone calls).\u00a0 At 10, I would return to my desk to organize a weekly calendar for each of my Reps.\u00a0 At 11, I would begin to update the constituent log, which was a record of every e-mail sent from the 4 legislative districts.\u00a0 I was responsible for responding to many of these e-mails, and had to keep running totals of top issues so that at the end of every week, we could report to the Reps.<\/p>\n
At noon, I would take a lunch hour.\u00a0 By 1:00, I would begin research on legislation in progress.\u00a0 (The most frequent constituent comments were those in either opposition or support of legislation).\u00a0 I would then draft letters explaining the progress of bills on their way through the legislative process, and explaining how each Rep planned on voting for that bill.<\/p>\n
Throughout the afternoon, I would answer phone calls from constituents in all 4 legislative districts on my caseload.\u00a0 Many people would call in looking for help with food stamps, or unemployment.\u00a0 For every case, I would contact legislative liaisons from state agencies in order to sort out a particular constituent\u2019s case.\u00a0 To help solve one man\u2019s case, I got to speak with Indiana Department of Homeland Security, the State Police Department, and the Department of Transportation, all in one afternoon!<\/p>\n
I was also able to attend committee meetings, work with school-aged pages, and sit in on the House Floor during debates.<\/p>\n
On a daily basis, I was able to utilize my language skills in order to help real people understand the legislative process, and cut through red tape to work with state agencies.<\/p>\n
Written by Whittley Lewis, English major<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I spent my Spring 2010 semester working as in intern for the 2010 legislative session with the Indiana Republican Representatives. A typical day included arriving at 8:30.\u00a0 At 9am, I would go to the House Chambers and organize the desks of all 4 Representatives on my case load.\u00a0 I got to know each member personally […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[748,1606],"class_list":["post-110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-our-opportunities","tag-internships","tag-whittley-lewis"],"yoast_head":"\n