In September, five UNM students set out for Washington D.C. to become congressional interns for a semester. UNM instituted the program in association with the President’s Club at the UNM Foundation, which is giving the interns a stipend to cover living expenses. While in Washington they work in the congressional offices 32 hours a week and carry a full class load at UNM via special arrangements with professors.
2006 UNM Congressional interns (l. to r.): Dee Baker, Christopher Miller, Angela Gonzalez-Aller, Marcus Romero and Moanna Wright.
Moanna Wright
When Moanna Wright applied for the internship program, she thought she would build a bridge between her major in Anthropology/Ethnology and her minor in Community and Regional Planning. Now she thinks she is having the experience of a lifetime. She says it’s a combination of things -- seeing the legislative process up close and living in a city that holds so much of our national history.
As an intern for Congressman Tom Udall, she logs constituent comments, sorts mail, forwards faxes and clips local news articles. But one of the duties she enjoys most is giving visiting New Mexicans tours of the Capitol. “Each tour is like a mini-history lesson in which I learn something new about our rich national history,” she says, “and I’m able to share it with others.”
Christopher Hartmut Miller
Christopher Miller, a political sciences and Spanish major, attends policy briefings as part of his duties for Senator Pete Domenici. The briefings include a variety of policy positions and interests on a specific topic and provide balanced information to the staff and members of Congress. He says senators also form decisions by talking with constituents and various interest groups.
But for him the best part of his internship has been writing the first draft of a speech Domenici delivered on the Senate floor. ”It certainly is pretty cool to be able to look up a speech made by the Senator in the Congressional Record and be reading my own words,” he says. He’s been amazed by the amount of information he absorbs just by being on Capitol Hill. “You don’t realize how much you know about a variety of issues, the legislative process, different members of the House and Senate, and how the three branches of government interact until you start talking to someone not on the hill,” he says.
Angelina Gonzalez-Aller
Angelina Gonzalez-Aller is learning about methamphetamine, New Mexico’s biggest drug problem, as part of the research she is doing as an intern for Congressman Steve Pearce. He is working on “The CLEAN TOWN Act” or “Communities Leading Everyone Away from Narcotics through Online Warning Notification”. It’s a bill to require convicted narcotics dealers to register with the authorities, and have their addresses posted online, just as sex offenders have to do now. Gonzales-Aller says she got to deliver the bill to the Cloak Room to be introduced in Congress.
Gonzalez-Aller also got to research a provision in the Homeland Security Act and on the effects of the SAFETY Act on companies manufacturing and developing anti-terrorism technologies. She says the experience isn’t just the time she spends in the office. She believes “living in the capital has given me a great deal of insight as to how the city functions and has also given me a greater understanding as to how our nation is governed.” She thinks the experience will help her as she pursues her double major in political science and Spanish.
Deborah Baker
Deborah “Dee” Baker is studying for a double major in political science and psychology. Her favorite part of the intern experience is attending committee hearings and doing legislative research for staff members in Senator Jeff Bingaman’s office. Right now she is researching agricultural tariff phase-out periods in a number of different free trade agreements. She is focused on a finding a reasonably effective phase-out period on essential grains like wheat, rice, and potatoes for the free trade agreement with Peru. She’s also researching defense studies on inertial guidance testing in navigation systems of certain squadrons.
Baker too is taken with the actual experience of living in Washington D.C. “I love being able to walk down the street and see a historical building or museum on almost every corner,” she says. “I am constantly in awe at the richness of our nation’s history and the progress that our country has made throughout the years.”
Marcus Romero
Marcus Romero says he’s enjoying Washington D.C., but he’s still thinking of home. His work for Congresswoman Heather Wilson is a combination of answering telephones, going through email, doing constituent services and giving tours of the capitol building.
He is majoring in economics and political science with a minor in math and has done some research work on legislation, including the horse slaughter bill and the “Federal Prison Competitive Act.” His research led him to write a memo outlining the various amendments and what they would do so Wilson could use the information to help make decisions on the bill.
Romero thinks one of the most interesting things has been living in an area with a number of other congressional interns. He says someone is always ready to go out and do something, and there’s a lot to do in Washington. He says one of the big perks for Wilson staff members is attending dinners and receptions as a representative of the office while Wilson has been in New Mexico campaigning.
The interns come back to UNM for the spring semester, while a new group of interns will go to Washington D.C. in January for the opening of the new congressional session.
Media Contact: Karen Wentworth, (505) 277-5627; e-mail: kwent2@unm.edu
Posted by scarr at November 9, 2006 04:24 PM