EJ Wesson '11

Internship Days 8-12

I haven't blogged in a while since I haven't been doing much in the office besides answering phone calls. My last days are coming up soon and I'm really going to miss working at the congressman's office. Some days were extremely exciting, while others we didn't get a single call, nonetheless, I have yet to regret one day there. Recently I've been doing some more list making, especially of business cards. We have so much information that I doubt we will be able to categorize it all but that isn’t to say we are not attempting!

I really hope I get to do at least one last research project before I leave. I immensely enjoy finding out new things about the congressman and his constituents' needs and the mandatory knowledge that he must have in order be agreeable with his constituents. It's very exciting knowing that the research I do helps him out a lot. The congressman is such a busy man that he really has no time to sit down and research at a computer for hours. This is why interns at the office are so valuable!

Internship Day 7-8

My internship is going great! I may have to end earlier than expected because of travel issues.  However, I plan to make the most out of the experience of what time I have left. I am doing some collaborative work on recording businesses cards. The district hires out hundreds of people a year, and we need to keep track of all of them. This usually takes quite a while, but is worth having.

Internship Day 5-6

The last few day of my internship have been pretty dead. Some of the things I’ve been doing were creating more lists. I’ve also helped "spice up" the congressman's website to make it more attractive and easier to navigate for his constituents. We’ve added tons of new information to it like county and city information, maps, hospitals, and even some county history. Another thing I have been working on is finding publicity for the congressman in the newspapers. Every day we get a stack of newspapers, at least 6-7lbs, and it has to be sorted out for things either involving the congressman or other important events. These newspaper stacks haven’t been sorted out in a long while, so that was all caught up on this week. Other than that, I've just been answering calls and doing other small tasks to stay on top of business.

Internship Day 3-4

My internship has progressed a lot in a little time. I feel like I’m actually part of the office.

I didn't realize how many lists these people have! There is a list for everything! I just finished compiling a list of all fire chiefs and police chiefs in a certain area, now I’m making a list of all contractors hired by this office. It a tedious, but important job. Making sure everything is updated is quite important, because when I need information, I must know that it is accurate and up to date.

I've become much more adept at answering phone calls and answering people's questions when they call the office. Every once in a while I get some strange phone calls from residents demanding impossible tasks, but a polite tone of voice and referring them to the appropriate resources usually does the trick. I am really starting to enjoy what I do and I'm sure it only gets better from here on out.

Dave Loebsack Internship 1-2 day

My first internship day was last Thursday. I must say it was a bit different than I expected. I was expecting to be in a large office full of people working with congressmen and and doing research in public policy. When I came into the office, it was about a third of the size I expected, with only a few people in it. My coordinator greeted me and said "Welcome to Dave Loebsack’s Office!" Now I knew congressmen's office sizes had restrictions, but I didn't know it was to such an extent! However, this turned out to be a good thing, I think. With such closeness, people are very friendly in the office, and their is no sense of a boss-employee environment, but a co-worker to co-worker environment. I like this a lot.

On my first day I learned how to answer calls coming into the office concerning the district and other related matters. Currently, I am charged with the job of compiling a super list of of all police and fire stations and their chiefs in this district. It’s a big task but I know it will be put to use someday so I'm happy to be the one doing it.

So far, for only being their for two days, I have learned a substantial amount. One thing I've learned is that a congressman's schedule is certainly a busy one. I now know that all his assistants are quite necessary to keep all of his appointments straight! So far this internship isn't what I expected, but it’s beginning to look like good thing.