Washington Internship Program Week 3 Mariah Spronk

It has now been three weeks since arriving in Washington and we can finally all say that we’ve officially started our internships in our various congressional offices. Covid has thrown a spanner in the works for some of us, but thankfully now all our internships are under way.

As we progress through our time here and grow more comfortable in our offices, we’ve all been given more tasks and responsibilities to be trusted with. Some of those tasks include opening the office each morning to set it up for the staff, making the coffee and laying out the newspapers, opening and sorting through the mail that comes into the office each day, writing out constituency letters/mail to be delivered to the district, and attending virtual meetings and hearings to take notes. For most of us, those everyday tasks also involve fielding calls from the various people calling in to the office, both from the district and from all across America. While it may seem a mundane task, it feels somewhat of a novelty to entertain an interesting caller from some obscure corner of the country for a few minutes of our day.

It still feels quite surreal to be here, and I’ve had several “pinch myself” moments over the last couple of weeks. Walking past the Capitol Building on my way to and from the office each day never fails to amaze me. A highlight has also been walking home past the Supreme Court on the same day that a justice announced their retirement and history was made. I recently attended a congressional briefing organised by TFAS and was given a piece of advice by a congressman. He told us TFAS interns to make sure we soak up every moment of our time interning on the Hill, and that’s exactly what I’m doing.

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