White House Internship

Parent Cafe
1

<p>DS has become interested in politics and might be interested in doing a White House internship. Any advice/words of wisdom would be most welcome. He’s already told me he won’t be bringing a “blue dress”!</p>

<p>TIA for any help.</p>

2

<p>HappyLady – it depends on what his political leanings are, where he is. It’s practically impossible sans connections to gain a White House internship straight-off-the-bat freshman year. With this Administration, you would need some form of prior political experience (e.g. working for the RNC, a Republican Member of Congress, etc.) to get on board. Obviously, there are exceptions, but that tends to be the rule.</p>

<p>I assume your son leans Republican, seeing his interest in the current White House. Keep in mind, politics in Washington tend to be very volatile – a GOP internship in the summer of '08 will be useless for a Democratic president. </p>

<p>In all honesty, some of my friends who have interned at the White House were rather dissatisfied with the program. White House interns work out of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building (as are most of the staff members), and they do mostly mundane duties (I mean, as an intern, who doesn’t?)</p>

<p>I would recommend that your S intern for a House Committee (minority committee, if he’s suited more towards Republican ideology), to gain practical policy experience. Some of the committees offer some form of a stipend (while the White House does not), so that might sweeten the pot a bit.</p>

3

<p>Thanks, tlaktan, for your advice. I will be passing this along right away to DS.</p>

4

<p>He could shoot for this later one</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.whitehouse.gov/fellows/[/url]”>http://www.whitehouse.gov/fellows/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

5

<p>Apply at the top! There are all kinds of vacancies at the top of the Attorney General’s Office!</p>

<p>Current Presidential Fellows in the State Department - ALL OF THEM - have now been sent to Portsmouth, NH and to New Orleans to work on the passport backlog.</p>

6

<p>My D has interned for a personal Senate staff on the Hill and is currently interning for a district House office near home. Both are good experiences. Interns on the committee staffs are often (usually? always?) at the discretion of the office of the committee chair (ranking majority member) and if you don’t have a connection via state or district, your odds go way down. </p>

<p>Remember that money is also much more available to the majority, wherever you are.</p>

<p>D has found–and it tallies with my experience–that you actually get a higher percentage of substantive experience in the smaller office…not as many people or as many ranks for assignments to pass through. That said, she loved her Senate experience and I expect her to pop back up there one of these days in one capacity or another.</p>