Students Gain Political Experience

Students Gain Political Experience

Malini, Erin, Mehwish and Anne DeCecco

By Anne DeCecco

Observer Staff Writer

High school is supposed to be a memorable time, and Herndon High School's Malini Paul will remember her senior year as the time she interned at the Washington, D.C., office of Sen. John Warner (R-VA) and had a fateful encounter with Senator Barack Obama (D-IL).

According to Paul, she was running late one evening after her internship when she was supposed to meet some friends to take the metro home.

"I took the underground train to the Capitol. I got really lost and really confused, and I was frustrated so I just found the nearest exit and I just like walked outside," Paul said, recalling the event. "I go up these stairs on the side entrance of the Capitol, and someone pushes the door open and holds it for me, and I look up to say thank you and it was Barack Obama."

Paul's smile seemed to say that she would remember the moment for years to come. "I'm in love with him, so it was really awesome," she said.

Paul is one of 70 senior students taking political science at Herndon this spring, a class which carries with it the requirement to fulfill an internship related to the course's content.

This year some of the political science students are interning in Washington D.C., with senators and representatives from all over the country, including Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and 2008 presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY). Other students are interning at the Green Party national headquarters, the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Democratic National Committee.

Several students decided to stay local and are interning with Virginia Del. Tom Rust (R-86th), Fairfax County Hunter Mill District Supervisor Cathy Hudgins, the Herndon Dulles Regional Chamber of Commerce, the Council on American Islamic Relations in Herndon, and the office of the Town Clerk and Mayor of Herndon.

Students began their internships Jan. 29. They leave school at about noon twice a week to go to their places of work, where they assist in various tasks and projects until about 5 p.m. The students are required to keep journals of their experiences and to e-mail them to their teachers throughout the internship program. In May, when the internships end, the students will be graded on their journals and feedback their on-site supervisors provide.

In the fall, the students filled out questionnaires with their preferences regarding location and type of internship, and when their options were narrowed down, many had to send in applications to the internship offices.

Rebecca Small, one of Herndon's political science teachers, said she and Doug Graney, who also teaches the subject, begin calling the various internship offices in October each year and they usually work on securing places for each student right up to the time when the program starts. She said the internships are very difficult to get due to competition with college and graduate students.

"There's a perception on the Hill that the college kids are going to be more mature and we have to battle that and we make that so clear to the kids," Small said.

Graney said that in the end, those in charge of the Herndon interns are always impressed with their work. "What we've also heard though over the years is, we've talked to intern directors and we've visited the students, we'll hear things like ‘we give your kids the same duties we give the college and grad school interns and they do as good or better a job.'"

Graney and Small said some Herndon students have continued their internships during college vacations and have also been offered paid part-time positions at the same offices.

Small said that in the fall, the classes study the voting record of a different member of Congress each year and they prepare questions based on the congressperson's votes on key issues. They then go on a field trip to the Capitol, where they meet the congressperson and ask him or her the questions. This year the classes met with Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD).

"I feel like it's a wayI hope—it's a way of sort of breaking down that barrier where they may be nervous, because they actually get to ask a congressperson you know, what motivated them to vote on a particular piece of legislation this way or that way," Small said. "And so if they can interact then with a member of Congress on that level, I feel like they'll be less nervous when they go to their internships."

Small said they also visit an embassy each year. This year the classes visited the embassies of Venezuela and Mexico.

During their internships, students fulfill a number of basic tasks, such as sorting mail and making copies. Paul said she also worked on a project proofreading and editing biographies of all the freshman democrats in the Senate because Warner wanted to get to know them better.

Mehwish Khalil interns at the CAIR office in Herndon and said she has been given lots of responsibility, as well.

"The other day they assigned me a project that I had to go to the Jewish community center in Maryland and I had to do a presentation to 7th graders and I talked about Islam and the basic concepts and the similarities between Islam and Judaism and I answered questions. It was a really nice dialogue."

Khalil said she has now been given a new assignment: to serve as head coordinator of a summer youth conference. She said she will be responsible for booking speakers and planning the logistics of the conference.

Khalil said after taking the political science class at Herndon, she is considering studying the subject in college. Paul also said the class and the internship experience has awakened in her a new interest in politics.

"I'm a lot more, like, in tune with politics now. I was never really interested in it, but now I am and like I caught myself watching C-SPAN and stuff," Paul said.

Graney said the program really got going in the 1994-95 school year. Prior to that, students had been able to intern in a limited number of places, but only about 10 did so each year, according to Small.

"As far as growing as students, I see them sort of gaining professional skills that they would not have an opportunity to do in a classroom setting. They have a sense of pride about what they do," Small said.