Deacs in DC: Week #1
Hello everyone! Week 1 in DC was full of transitions and adventures! Something really great about the nonprofit organization I am interning for is that the Vice President and the President/Founder of the organization are working in the office with the interns every day! The office is very organized, has a large, white table that turns into a ping-pong table, and the walls have the bright orange “Running Start” logo and quotes from women politicians and leaders plastered on the walls. There is even a library of women in politics books in the office! I am learning the ins and outs of nonprofit management, communication/public relations skills, and the daily “office” schedule. My suite mate Caroline, who goes to school at Davidson, also interns at Running Start! It is wonderful because we walk together every day before and after work! There are 9 interns at Running Start this summer, including myself. Interns range in age from rising sophomores in college to just-graduated-from-college. We get along really well and learn from each other’s expertise and experiences. Although we are all studying different subjects in college, we have a shared passion for women empowerment and bringing more women to the table in politics.
The office atmosphere at Running Start is very unique considering there are many interns. Each morning, I email my supervisor to tell her what I will be working on and ask what needs to be done that particular day. At the end of the day, each intern sends the VP of Running Start the tasks we worked on or completed that day to keep track of the summer projects. I answer the phone in the office, conduct research on the disparities between the percentage of college-men and college-women interested in running for office, and I’m working on the “get out the vote” section of Running Start’s new women candidate manual which will have an online, interactive feature in September. We are also busy with the Young Women’s Political Leadership Program that Running Start hosts each year at Georgetown University which is coming up on Monday, June 19th to Saturday, June 24th. I was tasked with calling each of the 66 participants to confirm their travel plans to DC for the conference this past Friday. I’m very excited to meet the young women and to see them develop leadership skills throughout the conference!
The highlight of my week was finding out that interns will be conducting interviews with prominent female leaders on Capitol Hill this summer as a part of the new manual we are putting together! I will be interviewing Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen with a fellow intern, Kassy hopefully this upcoming week. I will keep y’all posted. Thank you for reading and have a great week!
-Daniella Feijoo
