Millennial Action Project, Washington, DC
This summer I worked as a Congressional Policy Intern for the Millennial Action Project (MAP), an organization dedicated to fostering bipartisan cooperation among millennial legislators. I was responsible for researching and creating a database of millennial congressional candidates, which will be used to find potential prospects for the Congressional Future Caucus (CFC), a caucus comprised of Congressional members from both parties who are under the age of 45. I was also responsible for tracking legislation sponsored and co-sponsored by members of the Congressional Future Caucus. I created a factsheet on Covid-19 spread mitigation using hotels which served as the basis for a MAP one-pager used to garner congressional support for Congressional Future Caucus Co-Chair Gonzalez’s (OH-16) bill, H.R. 7624; and a one-pager on Joe Biden’s infrastructure plan as an internal resource for MAP. I also authored the blog post “Ensuring Election Integrity in 2020.”
I aided preparations for MAP’s annual Future Summit event—the largest bipartisan gathering for young state legislators in the U.S. and virtual for the first time—writing the legislator lead bios for the Welcome Packet, conducting outreach to state legislators, and researching legislation for the bill book. For my capstone project, I choose to create a two-pager on prison education reform, outlining different ways to lower recidivism (through juvenile education and vocational training to increase employment opportunities), and providing bills as examples for legislators. We had an incredible leadership panel, including a former Williams professor of mine. Our keynote speaker was Martin Luther King III, who spoke of radical love and bridge-building.
I loved my internship with MAP. The organization has such a wonderful team and culture, which shined through even in a virtual setting. Given everything going on—from the pandemic, the threat to our democracy, to systemic racism—I was so thankful for the opportunity to be part of MAP, and make a difference through the work I did. My time at MAP gave me hope—seeing young legislators from different sides of the aisle working together to solve the serious problems facing the younger generations is very uplifting.
My internship with the Millennial Action Project was an incredible experience and exposed me to a wide variety of issues. I am truly grateful to the Alumni Sponsored Internship Program and the ’68 Center for Career Exploration for all the excellent work they do to equip Williams students with valuable professional experiences. I am so thankful to Mr. James D. Marver ’72 for his wonderful generosity and for helping make this incredible opportunity possible. I’d also like to thank Professor Chris Gibson, who introduced to me to MAP founder Steven Olikara and has been such an incredible mentor and cheerleader along the way.