From Earth to the Moon

A few days ago NASA gave us one more reason to look up into the sky and in doing so, take a second look at what we really know about our closest neighbor. Evidence of water on the Moon recently found by crashing a probe into its surface has everyone rethinking the possibilities that will arise as scientists all over the world begin to cope with this reality.

Meanwhile in Washington, it is the interns who in the last few days have aimed at landing jobs in our nation’s capital. There are those whose internship placements will be hiring someone at the end of the year and whose bosses will be choosing between this semester’s interns to fill that position. There are those whose supervisors have left their positions for whatever reason and whose bosses at their internship placements will likely hire one of the interns who by now has months of experience at the organization. And then there are some who are as proactive as the NASA scientists and will be “crashing” into every office (that is every office on the Hill) with their resume, looking under any rock to see whether they can also find their own water on the Moon.

I have gotten these examples by talking with TWC students and/or alumni who have told me about these and other incredible stories about how they landed their jobs right after interning in DC.

TWC encourages us to be proactive in looking for job opportunities. At the same time their program's final portfolio requires us to conduct an informational interview. Informational interviews are used by interns to find someone in the profession in which they are interested and to learn about either the day-to-day operations of the work of a legislative director in the House, the post-college path a current non-profit president took, the real time spent on the job if you work in a law firm, etc.

Moreover, people love to talk about themselves and to be helpful to others who are, like they once were, unpaid interns trying to make it. You can receive lots of advice and find out about their professional experiences.

Here's some guidance if you do an informational interview in Washington. To find an interviewee, send an e-mail to or call those whose connections you have made either during TWC networking opportunities, your job, a long trip on the Metro or maybe at a restaurant or bar. Try to ask for 15 to 20 minutes to sit down with him/her at their convenience; you don’t want to burn any bridges. You want to make it clear that you're not trying to solicit a job interview. Tell them you need advice and ask open-ended questions. What do you enjoy about your job? What does your organization look for in a candidate? Should individuals attend particular schools or study within specific academic programs in order to land a job in your field?

Finally, does he or she have other contacts that you can be referred to? Because one or two informational interviews is not enough—at least for me, I'm going to try to get as many as I can. Ten should be a good number for you to attempt.
We talked about networking before in different posts, and I cannot stress enough the importance of making your connections work for you. But it will be up to you! Don’t wait for water to show up on the Moon’s surface. Be proactive, dig deeper, and you will find opportunities you might have never expected to find, even in the most unlikely and remote places.

Getting to “Politics and Prose” after “Looking for Paradise”

Before I explain how I unexpectedly ended up at the bookstore “Politics and Prose” meeting and listening to Hendrik Hertzberg, the former speechwriter to President Carter and current staff writer and editor of the “New Yorker” magazine, talking about his new book Obámanos! The Birth of a New Political Era…with the whole thing been taped by C-Span, let me begin with how I solved a problem earlier in the day…just follow me here ok? It will all come together at the end…

Early morning and the boss gave us all a big project for the day; we were off to Capitol Hill with lots of important documents to work on and stuff to do. It was going to take us a while but we knew we had it down, the problem was….I had cooked at home the night before and I was not looking forward to buying lunch and spending more money. So once we finished the project and attended the Political Leadership Program programming for the day –which consisted of an “in-district lobbying” training by the progressive organization Campus Progress, I was glad to find a little table where I enjoyed my lunch… I had no shame in bringing my lunch to the Monday programming because, let’s face it; the big elephant in the room is solving the following question: How are we going to feed ourselves in Washington without having to spend too much money? Let’s remember; we are not getting paid…so cooking on the weekend for Monday and Tuesday is my way to do it.

Now that I got that off my chest….

As I wrote earlier we, the office interns took a trip to the Hill using the Metro, an early trip. It was during that trip that to my surprise I saw a picture of Alejandro Sanz –a singer from Spain whose career I’ve been following for like 10 years, on the cover of the free and widely circulated daily Washington DC newspaper “Express”. It was not my newspaper, someone had left the wrinkled newspaper beside the seat (we are not supposed to leave anything in the Metro; they have recycle bins made especially for newspapers). Now, I’m a big fan of this guy but even I didn’t think he would end up at the cover of the paper. But apparently the people at “Express” thought otherwise and featured a very nice piece on his new single “Looking for Paradise” which features Alicia Keys, from his new album Paraiso Express.

It was this unexpected but welcomed encounter with Sanz, which made my eyes glaze over another interesting piece located alongside. Well, the key words for me here were Obama, engaging book, presidential campaign, New Yorker magazine, and the quote “offering incisively analytical and exactingly penned commentary”. But what made the sell for me was “…Hendrik will appear at “Politics and Prose” tonight to discuss his work”. Enough said, it was early Monday and by then my only concern was finding time to eat my homemade lunch and we all know how that story ended. I didn’t know this was one of those “C-Span bookstores”, where they tape the author speaking about his or her book and then show it on the weekends. I’m one of those students who chooses to watch C-Span while having my younger brother make fun of me for watching “Book TV” as he mistakenly calls it.

I do have to admit one thing, for a while there I confused Politics and Prose with Busboys and Poets. I know…it’s bad. How did I do that? I guess that my trip to the latter bookstore during my “Taste of DC” class was responsible for the confusion. Busboys and Poets–another place you must visit–is located two blocks from U Street using the Green Metro line and stopping at the U Street station.

Politics and Prose bookstore

Nevertheless, after going over the article again and realizing that Politics and Prose was located by the Van Ness Metro station on the red line, I made it with time to spare. I should have taken the bus from the station but the day had given me enough confusion and I was not about to tempt fate, so I figured I read the street numbers as I walked. Next time I am letting the L1 or L2 buses do the almost 1 mile trip.

It was a pleasure to meet and listen to Mr. Hertzberg, I didn’t know he worked in the Carter administration. And while he spoke and answered questions regarding his book, he also made some interesting points regarding the Carter administration and its Human Rights campaign efforts as well as about President Reagan, Premier Gorbachev and the fall of the Berlin Wall, an event celebrating its 20th anniversary that day.

Hendrik Hetzberg; author, editor of the New Yorker and former Pres. Carter speechwriter

He also had some interesting commentary about how we shouldn’t just “worship” the founding fathers of America but we should try to imitate them and start to look at the system of government the same way the founders would. Making the case that President Obama is up against an “18th century political technology” where the system is really the biggest obstacle to his reforms.

For more information about events at “Politics and Prose” check out their Events Calendar.

A very exciting day that I’m happy to have shared with you all as my blog title says “step by step”.

Between Poetry and Prose…it’s all in the details.

If you are following the news you know that besides the World Series people are also reflecting on the one year anniversary of President Obama’s historic election…. Some say he is not living up to the campaign promises and the change he called for during that fall, while others make the case that he has lived up to those promises within the realities of governing.

A year after the election of Barack Obama I find myself in Washington DC, and unlike a year ago, I am no longer campaigning for the candidate but working in an office that deals with the proposals and legislation of his administration and his party’s Congress.

Election night 2008. Today I have a better understanding of the realities of the governing that come after the campaigning.

At my internship at Chwat and Co. we deal with both poetry and prose, campaigning and governing. Perhaps a little bit more in the governing side than the campaigning side but as a government relations firm…ok lobbying firm, we work with several pieces of legislation, while also creating campaigns and strategies that present a desired goal to both clients and legislators.

I have said it repeatedly; I like the job placement I have, I enjoy getting to the office, doing my job and having my morning meetings with the other interns and the people at the office. And I do so because my job has tough me so many things about governing; the many little details and how much they count to try to pass any given piece of legislation. Moreover, by working on finding the best strategies to present our campaigns to both clients and legislators I am very excited about the prospect of using all of those techniques I am learning to help my community.

At the same time, with the help of Political Leadership Program, I’ve been presented with numerous networking opportunities. To those looking forward to interning in DC I say that it will be up to you to make those connections work to your benefit in the future. And remember that your experience as a whole in DC will depend on your decisions and the way you want to take on your 15 weeks. From taking a minute out of your day to look for community service events to do, to finding public hearings on issues you are passionate about. It can all be done but by doing your homework and making that extra effort, which I think it can always be done especially when one has a one in a lifetime opportunity to be part of the capital of the US as young students.

Going back to the whole campaigning/governing thing; on election night 2008 and hours after the election was called and the speeches were made and the people stopped hugging each other….I went back to my car and realized that this whole time the keys were locked inside of it. So just like finding out the little details that show the realities of governing once the campaign is over; to me knowing that I had left my keys inside my car brought me back from an exciting night to my own reality….it’s all in the details.