Experience Matters - Grand Valley State University

Congressional Internship

Trevor
Major: Political Science Drafted policy memos, wrote correspondence, assisted in legislative research, lead capitol tours, provided administrative aid

The Washington Center Internship Experience

Rachel
Major: Political Science Along with the other interns, I planned and hosted a monthly pub quiz for young professionals. I assisted in executing multiple events with distinguished authors, professionals, and government officials,including ambassadors and foreign heads of state. I was also responsible for writing blog posts and summaries about these events. I was also involved in carrying out two week-long educational seminars for high school students and educators.

Women, Politics & Non-profits

Sierra
Major: Political Science During this internship I had to do a variety of tasks, including: Creating and maintaining a social media presence, recruiting participants, researching the political activity of past participants, researching statistics on women in office, acquiring sponsors and tracking donations, attending networking events, and drafting documents such as biographies, contracts, recruitment materials, and event logistics.

WMRECC Internship

Shannon
Major: Political Science I worked as a Site Administration intern, assisting with data collection and organization, as well as with administering tests to determine student reading and comprehension proficiency levels. I also helped out with tutoring during the hours of the after school program.

A must for future lawyers

Jennifer
Major: Political Science I completed many different tasks while working. The dominate area that I focused on was bankruptcy as well. i would set up the file, input all the information, request missing information, set up appointment, and sit in on review. That was standard for the Chapter 7 cases and 13 cases. Chapter 13 cases had more documents that were drafted. I communicated with our clients, my boss, opposing counsel, trustees, and their staffs. I also drafted and served documents for divorce and custody matters. AS well as, probate. I also did the basic such as drafting letters, answering phones, emails, and filing.

Grand Valley Student Narrowly Falls Short in Write-In Bid for School Board

Adam
Major: Political Science As a candidate I was responsible for running my entire campaign. I worked on literature and campaigning working with various unions, the media, and voters.

Internship for the OECD Washington Center

Erik
Major: Political Science I drafted media advisories and press releases resulting in increased coverage for the OECD's work. I compiled media reviews for the Secretary-General of the OECD, on the 2014 U.N. Climate Summit and the Annual Meeting of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group. I would update the OECD contacts database to improve the efficiency of media campaigns. Preparing daily press clips for staff and monitoring news sources for articles of interest to the OECD was a task I would regularly do. My most frequent task was operating the OECD Washington Center's social media devices like Facebook and Twitter.

My Internship at City Hall

Zachary
Major: Political Science As an intern in the Administrative Services department at the City of Grand Rapids, I was able to complete a large number of diverse projects for the organization. I was able to do all of the following: participate in candidate interviews, perform data analysis for the City's succession plan, join the board of a young professionals network called govern: GR, and give a presentation about the importance of employing young professionals to the City's top management.

Pre-Law Internship

Chelsea
Major: Political Science Each week, I was assigned a different attorney to work with. I worked with attorneys in many different areas of law including probate and estate law, family law, real estate law, and corporate law. I assisted with legal research as well as trial preparation work and litigation.

MIGOP

Ethan
Major: Political Science -Placing phone calls for the purpose of voter contact -Going door-to-door for the purpose of voter contact -Contacting prospective helpers for Election Day

Senior Intern for the Livingston County Democratic Office

Lindsey
Major: Political Science I was able to attend several fundraisers for candidates. I also participated in the petition drive to get raising the minim wage on the ballot this November. I was able to go to several events for Mark Schauer who is running to be Michigan's next governor. I helped organize and send out thank you letters to people who came to Winans Dinner and went to post office and learned how to send out bulk mail for the party. I went to a Heartland Memorial Day parade to work at the booth for Livingston County Democrats. I was able to meet a union rep who is highly involved with the Livingston County Democrats who talked about how unions are involved in the democratic parties politics. I went to Lansing to turn in my petition signatures to the Secretary of State to help Raise Michigan increase the amount of signatures needed to get the issue on the November ballet for public vote. My boss had me began to organize a list of people to come in and do phone banking for the Coordinated Campaign. The Coordinated Campaign combines the effort for both the congressional race and the gubernatorial race. We drew up the phone list of who would be called to volunteer. I created a spread sheet to organize and keep track of how many calls we made and what the responses were as well as created a spread sheet to keep track of which volunteers we called, should call, and track who was able to attend the phone banking that week and who would be able to help in future weeks. I attended campaign strategy meetings for the candidates running for office in Livingston County. I worked on recruiting other interns from the area so we could start canvasing for candidates. I went out canvasing, or going door to door asking people to vote for a candidate. I was also able to attend a debate that was happening between the candidates running for the 8th distract, 47th district and the 42nd district. I was able to attended a training seminar on how to oversee Election Day polls as an Election Day inspector. Although my internship officially ended on 8/1/2014 I will be working as a election day poll inspector in the Hamburg Township for the primary election on August 5th 2014.

Development Work in DC

Jacob
Major: Political Science I interned in the Development Department of the United Planning Organization (UPO). The aim of the department is to secure increased private funding of the UPO's programs. After the government shutdown and the general sequester mentality of Washington, the large amounts of DC and federal government funding became vulnerable. Therefore, the Development Department was established to steer UPO funding towards the private sector where money is more secure and has less stipulations. My primary role over the summer was the main project manager of the upcoming online auction. In this role, I helped procure donations reaching out to private businesses and UPO connections for support. There was a heavy amount of messaging involved as my supervisor and I constructed email and phone scripts for our methods of reaching out. The different types of potential donors required unique arrangements of information and different stresses in that information as well. I also compiled item images, descriptions and company logos for the donated items and their online pages. The online auction site also involved an auction homepage which I played part in crafting. I also handled some other projects as the Development intern. One type included research of potential partners for future UPO projects. For example, the UPO was hoping to begin an IDA program to help low-income residents save money. This required a partnership with a private matcher of the funds, so I conducted research on financial institutions to determine a likely partner in this arrangement. I searched for their philanthropic activity in hopes of finding an organization who participated in a similar program in the past making them most viable to approach. Beyond research, I also attended many meetings with UPO department heads to discuss fiscal year 2015 funding along with various conferences about development strategies and related non-profit business.

Real Law Experience in a Great GR-based Firm!

Quinlyn
Major: Political Science As legal support, I spent a lot of time doing basic administrative tasks required in order for everyone else to do their job efficiently (i.e. opening mail, scanning mail to proper file, etc.), but that was really just the base. After getting a great handle on the basic tasks, what I did beyond there was really in relation to how much time I had to learn more. There was never a time in my four months here that I wasn't learning a new task to take on a new responsibility.

The Washington Center

Bridget
Major: Political Science I took an investigative intern position at the Public Defender's office of Rockville, Maryland where I served subpoena's, wrote statements of victims, photographed crime scenes, and testified in court. I also took a night class on Thursdays on how Washington really works regarding the relationship between the public, private, and non-profit sectors. I took part in a civic engagement program for the LGBTQA community that required 15 hours of community service. I had programming every Monday for International Affairs where we met professionals who found their way after college and provided insight to their careers.