Sadly, the internship was over yesterday. One of the pitfalls of the block system is that if you come to really love a class, you’re out of it far too soon. The weeks just flew by for this internship, and I was quite sad to go.

I learned a lot through this experience. I received a huge amount of hands-on experience with office skills, I got to work with constituents and government agencies, and I got to listen to angry voters. I couldn’t have asked for more. Heading in, I couldn’t  have told you what I expected to learn. Looking back, I’m amazed at how much I got out of it.

This internship has solidified my desire to enter the political field. There were moments where I saw how policies were helping people, when we could work with the agencies to help someone through a really terrible sitaution, and those were very rewarding experiences. But there were also a lot of times where you simply had to tell people that there wasn’t anything you could do for them. I want to be able to help those people from a policy perspective, or at least make an effort to do so. There’s a lot of good work to be done in politics, in the government and outside it, and I hope I am lucky enough to have a career that is able to do that.

Similar to any Cornell class, there comes a time (usually third week) when you really start to feel comfortable in it. I’m starting to feel like I know what I’m doing around the office, with cases, etc. I wrote numerous letters to constituents and agencies today alone, updated reports, and other stuff. Even though I’m still learning new things every day, I feel like I know my way around enough.

Tomorrow, Tamara is out, and I’ll be starting any new Social Security cases for her, which is pretty exciting. I’ll be the point person for a day, which is about the level of responsibility I can handle at this point. Depending on how tomorrow goes, maybe it’ll raise my confidence level.

One of the things I’ve found especially valuable about this experience is learning how a Senate office can help constituents at the local level. I literally had no idea what a local office did– turns out it’s a lot of stuff. I also see some of the grimmer sides of government. Not everybody gets taken care of with the current system, and there are some people that you just can’t help.  I haven’t seen enough cases at this point where I don’t become attached to the individuals in them. I suppose that comes with time.

The internship continues to go well. I was able to go out with one of the staffers last week to the Community Health Care center here in Cedar Rapids, to discuss how the stimulus would be affecting them and their future plans. It was really great to be able to go out into the community and see how government programs are affecting people at the local level.

I’m having a lot of opportunities to do case work– making inquiries to agencies, writing letters to constituents, and fielding calls. I’m doing work for every staffer in the office, so I get to work cases in every subject from social security to military. I’m learning a lot about the organization and nuts and bolts of the government.

Senator Harkin actually didn’t make it in last weekend, but he is coming this weekend (the ONE weekend I’m away, argh). I’m helping to organize the event for him. An interesting thing is how quickly the Senator’s schedule can change. We are just learning that he is going to be here today, and they want an event on healthcare planned and ready to go by Friday. We have to find a space and fill the room with people from the relevant organizations. The office really goes from zero to sixty every now and again.

One of the other caseworkers is out of the office this week, so I may find myself handling more veteran’s affairs, postal service, and a multitude of other subjects. Looking forward to it.