“Growing up in the DC metropolitan area, I have had access to the city’s educational, historical, and cultural opportunities all my life. However, living and working in the city was an experience more rich than I could have imagined. My internship site, especially, gave me the unique opportunity to work for a cause I care about while learning how politics and policy interact.
As a Policy Intern for National Coalition for the Homeless, I focused mostly on advocacy for housing assistance programs that keep low-income individuals in homes. This manifested itself in a wide variety of tasks, meetings, calls, and research. It was hard to be bored when I always had a new project to work on, new person to contact, or new subject to learn more about. I frequently communicated with NCH’s grassroots base, mobilizing groups that we’ve worked with in the past to take action now.
Giving my time in this way to NCH has rewarded me by building hard knowledge, like understanding the way government really works and how one can affect legislation, and my soft skills, like communication, time-management, and initiative. I’m so thankful for the guidance I was given, the freedom I had, and the experience I got overall. What a great way to spend my summer!”
— Jennifer Warner, Vanderbilt University student and National Coalition for the Homeless Policy Intern
