What I Learned in D.C. That I Never Could in a Classroom

What I Learned in D.C. That I Never Could in a Classroom

Finley Albinak interned at the office of Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky. The internship gave Finley a clearer understanding of potential career opportunities in government and politics and what living and working in D.C. might look like in the future..

It is no exaggeration to say that this Spring 2025 Semester was an incredible experience for me. I had been interested in participating in the Illinois in Washington Program even before I was a student at UIUC. When I visited the campus my senior year of high school, I spoke with people from the Political Science Department who told me about the IIW Program, and that stuck with me. Participating in the program had been a lingering idea in the back of mind ever since, and with the urging of my family, I decided to commit to applying and participating this semester. I am so grateful I did. My internship was with my Representative, Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky, and it was a fabulous opportunity and experience. I had always had an interest in working on The Hill, and getting a taste of it has been so valuable to me. I have no idea if I will come back after graduating next year, but now I have an excellent feel for the career opportunities, the city of DC, and what coming here again would entail. For anyone with interest in the government or politics, this is perhaps the most vital opportunity available.

I got to work in an office 9-5, four days a week, and get a real feel for what post-grad life might look like. I answered the phone, attended briefings, wrote memos, helped research for legislation, and so much more. I also got to work with and meet incredible people, including the other students participating in the program. The opportunity to network with so many people was great, and tons of what I learned was from speaking with people in my office and outside it. That allowed me to get a feel for things I wasn’t even doing in DC, I had coffee chats with people on the Senate side of The Hill, people working for government agencies, and more. I even got to meet UIUC President Tim Killeen when he came to meet with the Congresswoman.

I have to mention that a huge part of what made my experience so great were the people who were in the program with me. I did so many cool things with people from the class, and having people to motivate me to go see cool museums, tourist sites, and other stuff, was really awesome. I would highly recommend anyone participating in IIW to make friends with your classmates, and try and do lots of fun things together, it made my experience a thousand times more enjoyable. It also helps a lot to have people to chat with about how class and your work is going. Me and my peers were out in DC at perhaps the most hectic and insane time ever, and it was really important that we could talk about what we were all experiencing together and help keep each other steady.

I should note that even though my time was spent in such a chaotic time in DC, it was still an experience I would do over again without hesitation. I truly cannot recommend coming to DC enough, wherever you intern the experience will be transformational for you and provides more information and opportunities than you will know what to do with.