During the course of my sophomore year at Grinnell College (IA) a few of my friends and I toyed with the idea of working in Washington, DC over the summer. We thought it would be fun to spend the summer together in a big city. Since we are all Political Science majors the choice of DC was an easy one. With this in mind I started the process of researching and applying for internships.

I knew I wanted to work in the office of a politician because of my interest in the legislative and judicial processes. The obvious place to start looking was in my home state of Wisconsin. I quickly discovered that my own Congresswoman, Tammy Baldwin, had political views that closely resembled my own. She is a strong advocate for health care reform, protecting family farmers, and veterans. Also, she is widely regarded as an approachable, honest woman, who has the best interests of her constituents at heart. Given these factors, applying for an internship in Congresswoman Baldwin's office was an easy decision to make.

I then proceeded to submit a resume, contacted the office on a regular basis, and took part in a phone interview. In April I was offered a position as an intern in Congresswoman Baldwin's DC office. I immediately accepted and started planning for my summer in Washington, DC. Little did I know that this internship would be one of the most educational and rewarding experiences of my life.

From the very beginning, I was given the opportunity to witness the legislative process first hand. I went to lectures given by such notables as Ralph Nader, Senator Russ Feingold, Secretary of State Colin Powell, and ex-speaker Newt Gingrich, to name a few. I attended briefings on important issues for Wisconsinites such as Dairy Compacts, and the reduction of mercury emissions. I went to controversial committee hearings on flag desecration, and the death penalty. I discussed issues with Congresswoman Baldwin's staff and did research about topics of interest.

I certainly cannot deny that some of my work was mundane, but that work improved my grasp of how politics worked and gave me an increased understanding of the issues on Capitol Hill. I found that even sorting mail or taking phone calls could be a source of information. Each piece of mail or phone call represented a chance to learn.

While I am not sure what my future holds, I am extremely glad that I had this opportunity to intern in Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin's office. I now feel that I have an idea of what being a politician involves, and have a better understanding of the key political issues facing the United States today. Being an intern in a Congressional office was a wonderful experience that I highly recommend.

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I am a student at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service, and last January I went to Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin's Washington office to see if I could get tickets for the presidential inauguration. I was nervous about walking into the office of a member of Congress, but everybody there was very friendly. We talked about Poynette and Georgetown, and they took a real interest in what I was doing. I not only got the tickets, but eventually I applied for a summer internship in Congresswoman Baldwin's district office in Madison. The past few years have been anything but kind to the reputation of interns nationwide. Despite all the criticism, however, millions of young workers across the country have passed up better paying jobs in order to gain the experience of an internship, and for good reason.

Working in the district office has been one of the most interesting experiences in my life. There are, of course, some routine office chores involved, but even these often reveal important aspects of the congresswoman's work. For example, answering the phones for a day can give you a real feel for the wide variety of constituents' issues that are dealt with. And when a question or request comes in, Congresswoman Baldwin and her staff swing into action to help the caller. They must do quite well because many people call the office to express their appreciation for something or other.

I have also had the opportunity to attend public appearances with the Congresswoman. The glimpse into what goes on behind the scenes has been a great experience.

Congresswoman Baldwin is a strong advocate for a better health care system, gay and lesbian rights, and protecting family farms, among other issues. But even people who don't agree with her all the time have come to respect her. She works so hard, going to her Washington office from Tuesday to Thursday and working in the district office on Fridays and Mondays with many additional engagements over the weekends. She is also very accessible and a good listener-even to ideas an intern might have. She also knows that sometimes little things are very important to people, and she takes even the smallest problem very seriously.

When I return to Georgetown in the fall, I will have an opportunity to see the other aspect of Congresswoman Baldwin's job by continuing my internship at her Washington office. Though I have not yet firmly established my field of study at Georgetown, I am certain my future will include political science. I could not have thought of a better way to get my feet wet within this field than to work for Congresswoman Baldwin. I would like to thank Tammy and her staff for this wonderful experience.

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I had always been interested in working in a congressional office, because I study policy and politics at Yale University, but had little knowledge of how a congressional office worked. I had always been fascinated by Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin's policy work, particularly in the areas of health care and issues important to senior citizens. I wanted to be involved in her work to create social change through public policy, so this summer, I decided to intern in the Congresswoman's District Office when I was home in Madison on summer break.

I had never looked at government from the constituent angle. Rather, I had always assumed that the bulk of a congressperson's work occurred on the floor of Congress or in committee hearings, and that once politics reached the Congressional level, it became very distant from the opinions and concerns of "ordinary people." However, my work in the Congresswoman's office showed me the importance of the constituent in politics at the federal level.

Perhaps the most important lesson I learned in Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin's office concerned response to constituents. In this office, replying to constituent mail, phone calls, and other comments took priority, and I saw that a major part of Congresswoman Baldwin's job consisted of ensuring that she did, in fact, serve the needs of the people she represented.

On the first day, I learned about answering phones right away. Through this task, I came to recognize the importance of making people feel welcome to express an opinion or comment about an issue. Constituents call with a wide variety of requests, from wanting to voice their views of the patients' bill of rights to needing help fixing a broken water heater, and I realized that one of the most critical parts of my job this summer would be listening and helping the Congresswoman and her staff to respond.

I also saw that people call the office with a wide variety of perspectives on many different policy-related issues. I had never called a member of Congress to express an opinion about anything, even an issue I cared passionately about, because I always assumed that members of Congress were far too busy to pay attention to people's thoughts about policymaking. However, I learned that Congresswoman Baldwin's office actually welcomes opinions from constituents, and, in fact, the Congresswoman does listen to and read comments. In addition, staff always responded individually to letters, even if they did not directly relate to a federal issue. No matter how seemingly odd the complaint or question, a staff member could at least provide a referral to another agency that might be able to help. This, I saw, seemed to make an impression on constituents who had often been ignored by other agencies in the past. I remember calling several constituents who had written to us with IRS or Social Security problems, and they often thanked me repeatedly for answering so quickly. I also had the opportunity to write to several agencies that had contacted Congresswoman Baldwin for help in finding a speaker, supporting an event, and so forth. Again, these chances for community outreach showed me the importance of maintaining good relationships with both people and groups in the community. I was also interested to see the different kinds of services that our office provides. In particular, I worked on cases involving Social Security, workers' compensation, nominations to service academies, and other military issues. I also was exposed to INS problems, health-care concerns, veterans' issues, and discrimination claims. Sitting in the office, answering phones, and talking with the caseworkers, I discovered the many services that operate through Congressional offices.

The most interesting work I did centered around the federal government, which, I learned, also provides an amazing range of services, but can be difficult to navigate. For example, I worked on two infopacks about assistance for small businesses and for businesses engaged in international trade. Extensive online research showed that dozens of programs exist for these companies; however, information about the services is scattered between different federal agencies and is often buried within long documents or complicated websites. I enjoyed collecting and organizing information about these programs in a format that constituents would find easy to use.

I also learned how to use federal government resources to provide assistance to individual constituent concerns. For example, Congresswoman Baldwin received a letter from a man who had been fired from his company and was not receiving the health benefits from his former employer that he believed he was entitled to under federal law. I researched the laws that exist regarding health insurance for terminated employees and determined where a former employee can go to report violations of these laws. I contacted the appropriate office and found a helpful staff member who offered to speak personally with the constituent, who was then very happy to get the information from our office.

Another one of our constituents contacted us with a concern about a census survey he received from the federal government. He had a series of questions about U.S. census policy. Online research and discussions with two officials from the Census Bureau yielded the information he needed, and one of the officials even offered to call the constituent to discuss his concerns.

On yet another occasion, a woman called Congresswoman Baldwin to ask about how she could go about doing environmental business in Peru. Research showed me that many government resources exist for those wishing to travel to or do business in foreign countries, and I was able to write to the constituent and explain her different options.

The aforementioned discoveries and lessons came as pleasant surprises to me. The responsiveness and resources of the office made me far less cynical about the role of government in everyday lives, and the ways in which it can be of service to the people it intends to serve. However, constituents often contact Congresswoman Baldwin with extensive problems that she cannot solve.

Many of these difficult issues concerned health care. Constituents often faced particular difficulties in dealing with private health insurance, but also had difficulties with Medicare, Medicaid, and disability insurance. Many of the people who contacted the Congresswoman's office could not pay for certain essential procedures or even routine medical care due to lapses in coverage or lack of coverage altogether. These constituents often had desperate stories to tell -- but no federal government program exists to help with these problems. Others wrote to our office over difficulties they had making different payments. Congresswoman Baldwin receives mail from people who cannot pay for their education, apartments, child care, and other essential services. Again, no federal recourse exists for people who simply do not earn enough money to pay their bills. Some contacted us with workplace difficulties involving workers' compensation or discrimination. While the Congresswoman's office can offer some guidance in these areas, assistance is often limited to merely making inquiries.

Many of these problems speak to glaring inadequacies in federal programs. And this is perhaps the most important lesson to be learned from working in a congressional district office. The policy initiatives that Congresswoman Baldwin supports are extremely important-mainly because they meet these constituent needs. For example, my work here with constituents led me to value the national health care plan that Congresswoman Baldwin advocates more than I ever have before. So, in addition to teaching me about the significance of the constituents, my experience her this summer led me to believe even more strongly in the need to create social policy to help the constituents whose needs we cannot yet meet.

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