DC Internship

This summer I had the amazing opportunity to be an intern for

Congresswoman Mia Love. She is so passionate about the work she is doing
here. I was able to meet her on my first day and she said she loved my hair
(which might have been one of the most thrilling moments of my life). She is
often running around, so we didnt get much interaction with her, but the
time that she took to speak with us and let us know how much she
appreciated us was more than enough. When her kids were in town she even
asked me personally to take the places like to some museums and out
shopping! We all had a really good time.

*Pictures of us saying goodbye to the

Congresswoman

My main goals throughout this internship were to learn more about the
political process and to do whatever was asked of me to the best of my
abilities. I definitely believe I left with a greater understanding of how the
government functions and did the best job I could, but I quickly learned that I
would be in charge of finding my own projects. The Congresswoman had only
begun her term this past January, so the duties for the interns were very
unclear. The disorganization and confusion we experienced during the first
couple weeks inspired my biggest project of the summer; completely
revamping the Intern Handbook.

Basically as interns we were on our own. We had a handbook with a list

of duties, but it was incomplete and didnt provide enough work for us; there
were 5 interns! The handbook told us what to do, but didnt tell us how to do
it. We had to learn everything on our own, which was a bit of a struggle, but I
was grateful for the opportunity I had to show initiative and challenge myself
in ways I had never experienced before.

The greatest learning challenge was figuring out how to use

iConstituent. We were given a username and password and told to draft
responses. iConstituent is a program used by congress to receive emails
from constituents. We had to read through the emails and either find a letter
that matched the subject of the email, or research the subject of the email

and find the status of the bill in the House. We turned in the drafts to the
staffer who was assigned to the Legislative issue we were responding to and
sent them off after approval. We had to read over the example letters to
learn the type of wording and style of writing to use, and many times we
didnt know the Congresswomans stances on issues. There were many
constituents who wrote in crazy emails! Some were very rude, but none were
threatening-- except those who threatened not to vote for her if she did not
vote the way they wanted her to.

The most efficient way I found of working quickly through the emails
was to search for duplicates. Constituents often sent form letters from
organizations that asked them to send the letters to their Congress person. I
would find the duplicates and put them in a folder. I would then draft a letter
in response and send the same one to all of them. Normally, we like to send
a personal response to each constituent, but the way one of the staffers
described it to me was that if they didnt take the time to write a personal
letter to us then we didnt owe it to them.

The biggest iConstituent letter I worked on was the TPA/TPP letter. We

got so many phone calls about TPA (Trade Promotion Authority), TPP (Trans
Pacific Partnership), TAA (Trade Adjustment Assistance), and Fast track! It
was about a month straight of nonstop complaints about it. The emails were

also endless; although we already had a letter on TPA, Stefanie asked me to

write one up on TPA and TPP so that we could explain the difference between
the two. TPAs purpose is to make trade bills go through faster. Many thought
that because TPA doesnt allow amendments that it gives the president more
power. This is actually not true because congress still has 90 days after the
trade bill is presented to read through and vote on it. TPP is a whole different
thing entirely-- TPP is a trade bill itself. TPA just allows bills like TPP to be
voted on within the allotted 90 days. Representative Mia Love voted yes on
TPA and no on TAA. Those two bills were linked, and TAA failed to pass the
house. TAA was a bill to help those whose jobs may be affected by the
implementation of TPA. I spent a whole week researching everything about
Fast track and put together a letter to send out to everyone who had written
in about TPA/TPP. My letter was approved and sent out to at least 100 people.
Getting the email count down was a very important part of our job, so I was
proud to have contributed in such a big way.

Another huge part of my job as an intern was booking,

scheduling, and giving tours of the United States Capitol. I actually really
enjoyed giving tours. It gave me a nice break from sitting in the office all day
and I got to walk around and get to know constituents. We had to go to a four
hour training to give tours. The training was really boring to be honest, but it
helped for sure. I left the training feeling ok about giving tours, but I wanted
to be really confident before giving my first tour, so I went on a few tours

with the other inters to see how they did it and to practice a little. It was
interesting to see the different things that the interns pointed out and
thought were important to mention. I learned a lot from watching the others
give yours, and studied online as well. There is a website full of just about
everything there is to know about the Capitol. It even gives you a virtual tour
of the capitol! I studied really hard and learned as much as I could. I figured
that for most people, visiting the Capitol is a once in a lifetime opportunity,
so I wanted to make sure their experience was the best it could be.

Unfortunately, my first tour was awful. It was absolutely horrible!

It was just with a married couple and the wife would not stop questioning
me. Asking questions is great, and I love when people would ask me
questions because if I didnt know the answer I would google it afterward so
Id know it for the next time, but that lady questioned every answer I gave
her. She kept asking questions like well why is that? and Ok, but what
makes that so special? It was exhausting to say the leasteven her
husband asked her to stop questioning me. Luckily, that was my only bad
tour; the rest were amazing! I actually had a lot of people I know come to
visit me during my internship. I gave a tour to my parents, my two best
friends, people I had previously worked with in China, and a Naval Officer
that I am now dating. I may be a little biased, but those were my best tours.

* 1. Naval Officer Lewis

3. Rotunda with my dad

2. Me and my best friends

4. Former coworkers

The tours started off in the Crypt. George Washington was originally
supposed to be buried under the center of the crypt, but because his Will
stated that he would like to be buried at Mt. Vernon (his childhood home), he
was buried there. The center of the Crypt is actually the center of the entire
District of Columbia; It is a star, as you can see in the pictures above, that
lays out the streets of the District. There are thirteen statues in the crypt and
they represent the thirteen original colonies! Each state has two statues in

the Capitol, so those thirteen are one of those states statues. Utahs statues
are Philo T. Farnsworth (The Father of Television) and Brigham Young. Philo is
located in the Capitol Visitors Center, and Brigham Young is in Statuary Hall.
In the Crypt there is also a replica of the Magna Carta. It is an elaborate goldplated piece of artwork given to us by British Parliament in 1976 for the
Bicentennial. Fun Fact: 2015 is the 800th birthday of the Magna Carta!

The next room is the Old Supreme Court. There are three original
chairs that were used by the original chief justices, but everything else is
replicated. Even the lighting is artificial; they have fake windows where the
real windows used to be, but since the Capitol had been expanded on, it is
really just a wall. The staircase I take my tours up is actually the staircase
that the Presidents walk up on inauguration day right before they become
President of the United States of America. The staircase leads to the
Rotunda, which is the main attraction. It is a huge room that sits right under
the dome. There is tons of artwork including a the Frieze, Apotheosis of
George Washington, and huge paintings all around the room. Constantino
Brumidi is known as the artist of the capitol and most of his artwork is in the
Rotunda. The center of this room is where many important people have laid
in state including Rosa Parks, John F. Kennedy, Abraham Lincoln, and two
Capitol Officers who were killed on duty. The most notable statues in the
Rotunda are Martin Luther King Jr. and Ronald Reagan. Martin Luther King jr.s
statue was placed there the first year his birthday was celebrated as a

national holiday, and Ronald Reagans statue has pieces of the Berlin Wall in
it!

Statuary Hall is the next room. There is a spot in there where if

you talk in a normal voice it is projected to the other side of the room and
sounds like its coming from a speaker! Its really hard to get so sometimes
we would just have our group jump in with one of the Capitol Visitor Centers
tour guides. Everyone loved the whisper spot; its awesome! The tour was
pretty much over after that, but I usually had my groups go through
exhibition hallit showed the progress and growth of the whole District, but
mostly the expansions of the Capitol and the Congress and Senate buildings.

One of our staffers gave me a project that I worked on towards

the end of my time there. He had me scan in all the papers he had received
during meetings with Lobbyists and save them to the computer. I would then
read through the documents and figure out what they were asking for from
the Congresswoman. I created a spreadsheet to separate the documents into
their legislative issues and describe what they were about and what they
were asking for.

I mentioned before that I put together an Intern Handbook. In it I

laid out everything that the interns are responsible for and described them in
depth. My goal was to make it as easy for the next interns as possible. I
explained every step of iConstituent and gave tips on how to write letters
and responses, described the process of scheduling, booking, and giving
tours, and so much more. I kept every document I made for the Handbook on
a Google drive so that if there and any revisions that need to be made they
dont have to make a brand new document. It was a lengthy project that I
put a lot of work into and I am very proud of it. I hope that all of the future
interns can benefit from it.

I worked with the other four interns on writing an Op-ed that will be
published in the Deseret News! It was about Mias bill the Know Before You
Go act. Basically the bill would make schools give information like
graduation rates, loan payback, students earnings after graduation, etc. to
the public. This is currently not a requirement for schools to divulge that
information. We wrote about our current situations and how this bill would
have helped us when going to college. It was a really tough project that we
worked very hard on. Working in such a large group on one paper proved
difficult because we had to try to write with one voice and make smooth
transitions between stories. We were very proud of our final product and are
excited to see it published!

*All of Congresswoman Mia Loves Interns

Now that Ive talked a lot about the internship, I want to talk about all
of the fun stuff I did while I was out there! One of the first nights I was out
there we walked the monuments at night. Thats definitely the best way to
experience the monuments! Its not so hot and theres usually less people
around. On the weekends I would go on long runs around the monuments

from Mt. Vernon trail. That trail was absolutely gorgeous. My roommate Sara
and I walked there too many times to count! It went from our apartment
straight to the Jefferson Monument. On the way we pass by Ronald Reagan
International Airport and the planes fly right over our heads! That was
definitely my favorite part. It never got old, I took my parents there and my
friends there and still never got tired of seeing those beautiful monuments.

*1. View of Washington Monument from Jefferson

2. Caught in the rain!

3. Mt. Vernon Trail

Sara and I had Thursdays off so that was our day to explore the
city! We did so many things together on those Thursdays, it was a blast! We
did the Paddle Boats in the Tidal Basin by the Jefferson Monument, Natural
History Museum, Holocaust Museum, shopping at Pentagon City Mall, the
Eastern Market, and went to eat at some great places. My favorite thing we
did was taking the elevator to the top of the Washington Monument! When

we got there that morning we were at the back of the line and thought we
wouldnt be able to get tickets, but a young girl came up to us and offered us
some extra tickets they had! We were able to go right up within thirty
minutes! The view was absolutely breathtaking. I hadnt been able to fully
appreciate the beauty of DC until that moment. There was so much to see
and so little time, so we were very grateful for our days off. Being volunteer
interns, as opposed to our other roommates (one of which is one of the
highest paid interns on the Hill), caused us to look for ways to save money,
so we often walked our trail to avoud the two dollar Metro cost. Although it
would be nice to get paid, we decided that having Thursdays off was
completely worth it.

*1. Ticket for Washington Monument elevator

2. View of Jefferson Monument and tidal basin 3. View of Lincoln
Monument

While my parents were here I feel like we did almost everything you
can do in DC and we fit it all into three and a half days! I took them on our
trail to see the monuments at night and we were able to see a gorgeous
sunset as we crossed the bridge. We went to the Newseum (which had an
amazing FBI exhibit and a section of the Berlin Wall), Holocaust museum,
National Archives, Smithsonians (Natural History, Portrait Gallery, and
American History), The White House, and as I mentioned before I gave them
a tour of the Capitol.

* 1. Sunset on 14th street bridge

2. Washington Monument at night

from Lincoln

Something we were really looking forward to this summer was the

fourth of July. I mean, celebrating Independence Day in the Nations Capitol is
a once in a lifetime opportunity for most! Unfortunately, it was raining that
day so we spent the majority of the fourth indoors, but we had dinner at Bob
and Ediths (this awesome diner on 23rd street in Crystal City) and it was

amazing! We walked our trail to the Jefferson monument and watched the
fireworks from there on the edge of the tidal basin. It was beautiful! There
were a bunch of geese in the water when the fireworks were going off and
they were freaking out! It was pretty funny to watch them swimming from
one side to the otherthey were also honking pretty loud! We wanted to
avoid crowded trails so we walked to the White House to hang out for a bit.
We just sat on the curb and played music on our phones. It was a great
night!

*Roommates after a great meal at Bob and Ediths!

I mentioned earlier that I am dating a Naval Officerobviously

that was a huge part of my time out in DC so heres a little more about him
and the things we were able to do together. His name is Anthony Lewis and
we actually went to the same high school, so hes originally from Utah as
well. We had known of each other but probably only talked once or twice. We
are Facebook friends so when he saw that I was in Washington DC he

messaged me. He lives in Annapolis because he just graduated from the

United States Naval Academy. He is currently working with the football team
and will move to Charleston, South Carolina in October to go to nuclear
school because he will be working on submarines. So after he messaged me
we talked for a bit and decided to meet up and we have been dating ever
since!

Obviously I really like him, so spending time together was

enough for me, but because we were dating I was able to do so much more
than I would have! He took me to every restaurant on the list from Utah
State and I think we got sushi at least 11 times. I spent a lot of time in
Annapolis and he gave me a tour of the Naval Academy!

We attended a Nationals game when they played against the

Dodgers! I had never been to a Major League Baseball game before, so it

was really exciting! Anthony is a Dodgers fan, but he was a good sport and
wore Nationals gear! We ate Philly cheese steak nachos and they were
awesome.

*1. Philly Cheesesteak Nachos

2. Me and Anthony in our Nationals

shirts!

*Nationals Baseball field

He took me to Baltimore one weekend! I had really wanted to go to

Baltimore but none of my roommates were interested in going so I was really

grateful that he took me! We spent some time in the inner harbor and even
went on a brunch cruise! It was so beautiful there I never wanted to leave!
We got to walk past the Ravens football stadium which was so cool because
I absolutely love football and the Ravens are in the same conference as my
favorite team, the Cincinnati Bengals! We also went dancing one night and
had a blast.

*1. Brunch cruise 2. Inner harbor at night

To wrap up, Id like to talk about food. Honestly, this summer I ate
better than I have in my entire life! At the beginning I was trying to be
careful with my money so I ate at home a lot, but towards the middle and
end Anthony took me to all the best places DC has to offer! Potbellys was
the first place we went, so it has a special place in our hearts! They have the
best smoothies and milkshakes I have ever had! Our first sushi place was
called Sei and it was delicious! We had the cutest waitress and the setup of

the restaurant was gorgeous. I will never for the rest of my life forget the
S.O.S roll. Its long name is strawberries of summer and it was the best
sushi Ive ever had. Possibly even the best food Ive ever had; it was salmon,
strawberries, and what I believe was mint. Absolutely unreal! Good Stuff
Eatery had amazing burgers. I loved their different kinds of dipping sauce for
the fries! The mango and chipotle sauces were my favorite! We went many
other places, but the place I want to talk about most is Bonefish. We hadnt
heard about it at all, we were just craving seafood one night so we googled
seafood places near us. We were starving so we just chose Bonefish quickly
so we could eat fast. We got there and were immediately in love! Its a really
nice place and the waiters are the chefs! He got a Tuna Ahi bowl which is
premium sushi grade ahi tuna, sesame-seared rare, avocado, sweet chili
sauce, jasmine rice + passion fruit salsa. I got a Chicken Teriyaki bowl which
is Tender-marinated chicken, fried rice, fresh mango salsa, macadamia nuts,
lightly drizzled with signature Pan Asian sauce. Both were delicious! He could
tell I liked the tuna better, so he offered to switch me mealsI accepted. We
went back to Bonefish on my last night and had another awesome
experience with incredible food! It was the perfect way to end the internship.
(We also did an escape room and had the time of our lives! We had never
heard of those before but if youve never been to one I highly recommend it!)

To sum up, I had the best summer of my life in DC and would do it all
over again! I am forever changed for the better because of the experiences I
had there.