By Cassandra Carroll
Spring 2014
Our class outside the US Capitol.
In my first week as an intern on Capitol Hill I was asked the same sequence of questions approximately 40 times, and my first week was only two days long. People would start by asking if I was a student, when I replied yes, they wanted to know where, when I told them, they asked what I was studying. As soon as the words public relations were out of my mouth the confusion would cross their face. The next question was almost always some variety of “what are you doing here?”
No, I do not have a press specific internship. I answer phones, I give tours, I go to briefings, I do what every other intern on the hill does. The difference is that the political science major taking notes on America’s Future in Asia is at that moment doing something relevant to his major. It’s a clearly made connection.
My experiences here won’t teach me what a PR agency would, and they are not public relations specific, but I am learning about communications. I’m learning about the brand a member of Congress creates, and the relationship they build with their constituents and their supporters. I witness the schmoozing that people most often associate with politics, and also with public relations. What I assumed, and what I now believe, is that being a politician is being a brand, and that each member of Congress has created their own. They have their key messages, their style, their visions, the same way a nonprofit or a soda company does.
My Desk.
There is a language to DC, and even more specifically, to the hill. There is a culture here and an intensity that you don’t find in many other places. What the public relations professionals do here is relate what goes on in these halls, and this language, to the American people. They create the messaging that the average American hears and they steer the public’s opinion of our countries leaders. It isn’t an easy job, but it is an important job.
I do work with the press secretary in our office. I proofread press releases, I search for press clippings, and I work on media contact lists. These are valuable skills in my profession, but you can learn how to do those things in a classroom. What I learn in our office, the understanding of what people want, and who they can get it from. The relationships that are built and maintained, and the way we make everyone who walks through the front door feel important, that’s all PR. So no I don’t have the major people expect, and I’m the only communications student in our program here, but I take just as much from this experience.
Attending a hearing
