AMY KOTWANI

This spring, I interned for Congressman Jim McDermott (D-WA), former co-chair of the Congressional Caucus on India and Indian Americans. While working in his office, I had many opportunities to interact with him and hear him talk about his various experiences as a Member of Congress.

The work in the Congressman’s office was incredibly varied. Some days I would spend nine hours answering phones or responding to constituent mail, while other days I wrote press rele-ases or attended prominent hearings. The writing opportunities were my favorite part of the experience. The highlight of my internship was writing a speech that Congressman McDermott gave on the floor of the House of Representatives on the 15th anniversary of the Exxon Valdez disaster. The speech was broadcast on CSPAN.

I feel very lucky to have been part of the spring Washington Leadership Program (WLP). The three other interns in my class were phenomenal people. We would often meet for lunch and discuss our experiences and outlooks as interns in our respective offices. The four of us had the opportunity to research and write a paper on outsourcing. We attended hearings on outsourcing lead by experts on the subject, researched groups such as the ACLU by visiting their headquarters instead of reading about them on the Internet, and requested an endless amount of materials from the Congressional Research Service.

WLP and IACPA gave us an edge over many other interns on Capitol Hill. After the orientation week, we went into our first day of work knowing what to expect and how to make the most of our experience. Even though I interned for three-and-a-half months, I never quite got used to meeting Congressmen and prominent Indians such as Bobby Jindal and Ambassador Lalit Mansingh; being in the same room with Colin Powell or Hillary Clinton; walking by the Capitol at night; or sitting in the galleries watching the House of Representatives make news.