Intern in DC: Priya Ahmad's Experience at the US Senate

Priya Ahmad, a Political Science major from Occidental College, spent her Fall 2020 interning through the Washington Internship Institute in the office of then-Senator Kamala Harris as a Legislative Intern. She was able to earn a full semester of credits while on our program, and thoroughly enjoyed her internship on The Hill. We checked back in with her to see what she had to share about her experience:

Where did you intern, and what does your internship site do?

I interned in (now) Vice President Kamala Harris’s Senate office when she was a Senator for the State of California. I was a Legislative Intern in her D.C. office. 

I mainly worked on administrative tasks, like listening to voicemails, sorting through faxes, and scanned paper mail. I also was able to do a little bit of Legislative Work with the Health and Education Team, writing briefs on COVID-19 related issues. I am proud of the collaborative projects that the entire Intern Team worked on together. We collaborated on memos and working through the different correspondence, and finishing those projects was really rewarding!  

My favorite part of the internship is the different experiences that I’ve been able to witness. A lot was going on in the Senate while I was interning, and I saw firsthand the amount of work that goes into the things that the public sees. In our office, the interns’ emphasis was going through the constituent correspondence, and being able to see how a Senator can help their constituents was eye-opening. 

The biggest takeaway for me was the camaraderie between the staff members. The Hill can be an intimidating place, but every single staff member that I interacted with was welcoming and willing to bring the intern class into the ebb and flow of the office. They advised us on questions we had about Senate work, talked to us about their path to public service, their most significant victories and disappointments, and so much more. I learned so much, and they helped me make decisions about what I wanted to do moving forward, all while teaching me about working in the Senate and how to do legislative work. 

Do you have any advice for future students in our program?

Don’t take yourself out of the game before you even play. There are so many opportunities that exist in Washington, D.C, and even if you don’t get an internship you worked hard for, it might just be because another possibility is right around the corner.