I’ve just finished up my third week of interning at the Northeast Midwest Institute. It’s been a pretty busy few weeks all together.
The Northeast Midwest Institute was formed to provide Congress’s Northeast Midwest Coalition with accurate and nonpartisan information. We are located right off the Hill. NEMW does a lot of policy analysis and legislative tracking as well as some more scientific research studies and testing. Our reports and briefings are available to Congress and the public. The office is very small, with only about seven staff members in DC, but that gives us a lot of personal attention.
To give you an idea of what I do… I do a lot of different things. I’ve worked with the NEMW website quite a bit. I’ve taken notes on Congressional hearings as well as webinars hosted by Great Lakes or Mississippi River folks. I helped with a Congressional report and a couple briefings. We run a weekly newsletter about goings on in Washington and things happening all around the Mississippi River, and I’ve helped with that, too.
The process of getting this internship actually went pretty quickly. I knew I wanted to work on public policy in DC, so I googled a list of think tanks in DC, and I sent out applications to all of them that would listen. I had a standard resume, cover letter, and two writing samples. That was all that was needed for most of the applications. NEMW was the first group to call me back for a phone interview, and I was happy to accept their internship offer.
My first week gave me opportunities to demonstrate my skills. I was able to write up a couple short summaries of webinars and briefings, do some copyediting, and update some information on the website. Before I came, a lot of the website maintenance had to be done offsite, but since I am familiar with managing websites, it was no trouble to go in and make the simple edits that were needed. I also really enjoyed the copyediting. I’ve gotten positive feedback about my editing and website work, and that has helped me get feel like I can contribute meaningfully to the institute.
I’m hoping I’ll be able to work on my writing and editing skills more throughout the summer. My supervisors have discussed giving me a larger project that could serve as a writing sample for me, and I’m looking forward to getting started on that. When I graduate, I’m planning to apply for a position at the Congressional Research Service. Employment there is very competitive, so I want to have some very high quality writing samples to show the hiring manager.