Over the last three months, I was able to live, intern, and study in Washington, DC through the John Glenn College of Public Affairs’ Washington Academic Internship Program (WAIP). As a John Glenn Fellow, I worked from Monday through Thursday at the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) in the Office of Congressional Affairs, taking Fridays off to explore the city with the rest of the WAIP cohort. We visited everywhere from the Pentagon to the Anacostia River, and supplemented these interactive learning experiences with policy discussions and public affairs classes two nights a week.
My summer Second-Year Transformational Experience Program (STEP) Signature Project was a learning experience for me in more ways than one. Firstly, I gained a newfound understanding of and appreciation for the U.S. political system. Working in congressional affairs for a government grant-making agency (the NEH), my office responsibilities included legislative tracking and monitoring congressional activity. This summer was also my first time taking any Public Affairs coursework, and the opportunity to expand my academic perspective regarding public policy was really valuable. The hands on government relations work combined with the theoretical practice in the classroom gave me a well-rounded picture of the current political climate.
Although I learned all kinds of important practical and professional skills along the way, including in government relations and communications, what stood out to me most about this past summer was my increased focus on education and education policy. While working at the NEH, I was lucky enough to meet with grantees ranging from K-12 students to respected academics. As they came from across the country to the NEH headquarters, I was able to hear the very real impact that humanities disciplines like History, English, and Philosophy had had on them. These interactions made me realize the urgency of education policy that supports the humanities and often overlooked disciplines that support critical thinking and reasoning skills.
During one of our biggest events of the summer, National History Day (NHD), I was part of a coordinating team that arranged 50 meetings between congressional offices and NHD-participating K-12 students and teachers from around the country. For NHD, students work independently on creative history projects, ranging from plays to papers. This day is a perfect opportunity for the NEH to facilitate meetings between students and members of Congress to show them how important the humanities are in middle school and high school education. I represented the NEH in congressional meetings with two middle school students from Alabama who had been working on their Birmingham Children’s March presentation for just under a year.
Listening to the two students talk about their research process, their visits to the archives and the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, and their important takeaways from the history project was really special. They had dedicated so much time to this project, with the support of their teacher, and had been able to explore and make real life connections to the past. Despite the fact that both wanted to enter STEM fields in the future, this experience truly meant something to them and had a significant impact on their education.
Spending the day with these amazing students and their teacher impacted the way I thought about the NEH’s work for the rest of my time there. It gave me something tangible to work towards during my internship, and made me even more confident in the agency’s mission. In the long-term, it made me even more passionate about making sure that the humanities are part of the daily curriculum for young students, even as much of the funding and emphasis shifts away from fields like English and History and towards fields like Engineering. The endeavors of STEM and the humanities do not have to be exclusive – both realms of knowledge are so important, especially for young people as their perspectives are being shaped. I was lucky to witness this firsthand throughout my time in DC.
It was really important for me to have this STEP experience the summer after my sophomore year at Ohio State. Not only was I able to grow personally by balancing work and school while living independently in a new city, but I was able to focus my future academic and professional goals by narrowing my focus to education policy. This coming semester, I am focusing on a more interactive educational experience by working as an English as a Second Language (ESOL) tutor at the Columbus Literacy Council. And after graduation, I am hoping to utilize both my internship experiences with academic grants and education policy and my hands on tutoring practice to engage in a full time teaching experience before applying to graduate school programs. Without this opportunity, I wouldn’t have such a clear direction moving forwards, and I’m grateful to Ohio State’s STEP Program and the John Glenn College for making this possible.
At the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), the government grant-making agency where I interned this summer.
Me and my fellow John Glenn Fellows on one of our weekly study tours.
Two NEH grantees visiting their representatives.