Interning Your Life Around
A higher education in the Capital.
By Nathan Dickerson, University of Kentucky
Thursday July 6, 2006
My parents never encouraged me to keep up the family farm in Kentucky. To make up for what a small farm income couldn’t cover, my dad worked as a firefighter and an EMT while my mom worked at a day care center. They hoped for a less scattered lifestyle for me. When I was in my early teens, the plan was for me to go to ITT Technical Institute in Indiana after high school. My family realized as I got older, however, that I should aim for a college education. With respectable test scores and generous scholarships, I was fortunate enough to be able to attend the University of Kentucky as a first-generation college student. Yet I quickly discovered that to keep pace within the educational arms race, I would need a host of other expensive educational accessories. Having internalized this ethos, I find myself with the quintessential summer internship in the nation’s capital.
I’m experiencing a bit of social vertigo as I look back at my days on the farm with technical school ambitions, especially now that I’m spending my summer as an intern in Washington, D.C. During my first bewildered week inside the Beltway, I kept the classic Talking Heads song “Once in a Lifetime” on repeat. There were certainly a few times when I wondered, “Just how did I get here?” Like many American college students, I had left the sciences in search of a more satisfying exploration of the liberal arts. I made this switch knowing that I would have minimal debt from my undergraduate education and understanding that to apply liberal arts skills in the “real world,” I would either have to work assertively to join an unfamiliar class of knowledge workers or resort to serving lattes. I can certainly sympathize with the popular disdain directed at liberal arts students; because of the unclear career prospects a liberal arts education provides, it sometimes only seems financially pragmatic for those who have the social connections to be able to use it.
To build such connections, I applied for The Washington Center, a program that affiliates with multiple universities to connect their students to D.C. internships, adding some structure and academic accountability to the experience. I felt a bit sheepish for enrolling in a program that would arrange an internship for me, feeling as though it was the equivalent of an overpriced test prep course when, with the proper discipline, I could have just gone to the library and studied. Yet in the midst of a snowballing workload at the end of last semester, I realized that micromanaging applications and housing in a city I had only spent two days in last summer was outside my scope of capability. Thanks to the stipends I had saved from the Gaines Fellowship, assistance from my parents, and scholarships that removed the pressure of debt, I have been able to afford access to the “experiential learning” that is a prerequisite for a career in D.C.’s intellectual culture. (That would be an unpaid internship to the unacquainted.)
Now that I am in Washington and meeting other interns, I’m finding that The Washington Center is not an anomaly and many programs orchestrate internship placements for students who can afford this lifestyle. I had no idea summer intern employment had become so institutionalized, and even after being here for a month, I still feel embarrassingly naïve. I didn’t realize how much access interns have. For example, during the first few weeks, my internship supervisor asked me to attend the “Reverse the Raid on Student Aid” rally with Nancy Pelosi and other leading House Democrats. I arrived dressed similarly to the camera crew, not realizing the well-heeled atmosphere of the event. Everyone else wore business attire. I didn’t know rallies were so formal, and I didn’t think the HR (House of Representatives) room designation meant the rally was actually going to be inside the U.S. Capitol.
Because of my personal experiences, I’ve always been concerned about the accessibility of higher education, which led me to work for a nonprofit focused on lowering student debt through grassroots advocacy. The internship has not only helped me develop a more sophisticated understanding of student debt policy, but has been constructive in helping me understand the D.C. marketplace of ideas. Leading up to the July 1 interest rate increase for federal student loans, my first month in Washington saw me attending weekly meetings at the Campaign for America’s Future on behalf of my nonprofit. These meetings helped me appreciate the “inside the Beltway” rhetoric that is such a turn-off to many Americans. I began to notice the importance of job titles at these student debt meetings. Introductions in D.C., even socially, are a binary of name and occupation, as if the former simply cannot exist without the latter. This formality was at first counterintuitive, but I find myself using it naturally now. And my new vocabulary extends to the way I speak about politics. I’ve learned how narratives, messaging, scare tactics, and other political communication strategies can be used to disseminate information and cultivate activism. With the abundance of intricate policy ideas swirling around D.C., I can understand why advocacy organizations must employ such mechanisms to make policy accessible for those outside the Beltway.
Cities have always struck me as incubators of ideas, and this observation holds especially true for Washington, with its neoclassical architecture and plethora of think tanks. I love it here, and not just because think tanks provide the total package for knowledge-hungry interns with countless seminars and free food. Despite my efforts to soak up knowledge, I’m still not confident that I understand how this city works. Sometimes I feel as though everyone here spends their time writing political blogs for an audience of 12 friends while living off of a trust fund. But my outlook rapidly shifts when I walk into McDonald’s at 3 a.m. and realize that 24/7 knowledge workers depend on someone else to put in those same hours for minimum wage. This is especially disturbing to me because I feel that luck is significantly responsible for putting me on the other side of the counter.
Herein lies the crux of my dissatisfaction with the D.C. internship experience. I love the vantage point I have here in D.C. If I can continue to hover in this political knowledge culture, I may find a real use for the critical thinking skills I’ve gained from my liberal arts education. Yet I must approach this experience with cautious enthusiasm. I, for one, am unable to shake off feelings of a creeping disconnect between my lifestyle here and my lifestyle at home just a few years ago. This disconnect is echoed in the polarization I see between knowledge and service workers in D.C’s postindustrial economy, the disparity in wealth between neighborhoods like Georgetown and the Southeast quadrant of the city, and the distance between informed Washington elites versus average Americans. I gawk at the potency of insider knowledge and the way education stratifies people. From here, the hierarchies described by conservative thinkers such as Irving Kristol and Leo Strauss appear to be very real, indeed. Don’t get me wrong, I am glad to have a front row seat to watch how the world actually works. I just wish this sort of understanding were available to everyone.
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Comments
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Nathan,
I sincerely enjoyed reading your “blog.” And was considering a Liberal Arts degree. It seems to be working for you. Just think how much you’ll have learned inside that beltway and what you can do with it outside of it in helping the average citizen.
Keep-up the good attitude. I think as long as you do not loose your prospective on those before your front-row seat, you’ll do just fine.
Thanks. It really was uplisting to read your thoughts.
— Chrystie - Jul 6, 10:28 PM - #Dear Lord this was terrible. I suggest Nathan quit analyzing the job titles of DC, shut up and start working. I couldn’t even get through this self-indulgent mental masturbation.
— Rosalie - Jul 7, 01:09 PM - #Interesting article, Nathan. I, too, am a liberal arts major. I am studying history and political science at California State University, Long Beach. I have often thought about trying to get an internship in DC. Now, here is the unusual part…I am 50 years old. Did you happen to see any “seasoned” interns in DC?
— Linda Warner - Jul 7, 01:16 PM - #Chrystie,
Thanks for the feedback. I’m glad you liked it.
Rosalie,
I’ll grant that the piece is a bit self indulgent. Maybe I should start my own blog. I wrote it hoping that my instrospective “mental masturbation” would add some constructive insight for at least a few readers.
Linda,
You bring up an interesting point that I’ve never seen explored. I do know that one of the interns in the program I’m doing is a very hard working older mother with two sons. I’m sure she is not alone. By the way, best of luck at the university and any future internships.
— Nathan Dickerson - Jul 7, 02:19 PM - #Hi Nathan,
— Lori - Jul 7, 02:56 PM - #As a fellow Kentuckian who has lived inside the beltway for over 6 years now after going to UofL, I thoroughly enjoyed reading your post. It really resonated with me as I struggle with many of the same issues you mention. Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Best of luck and enjoy the rest of your internship.
Nathan,
— Linda Warner - Jul 9, 12:21 PM - #I am glad to hear there was an older woman in your program. That gives me hope!
All the best to you in your future endeavors.
Linda
Rosalie, that was very disrespectful. Please learn to disagree with others and even dislike them while still maintaing a decent attitude.
From one Nathan to another, nice article. DC does seem to be disconnected from the real world, with people letting their jobs go to their heads. Respect is given based on what you are, not who you are – a basic human being, an American, a child of God. I’m glad to read that you’re not letting it get to you. :-)
— Nathan E. - Jul 9, 04:00 PM - #The stratification becomes even more painfully clear for native Washingtonians of all economic, racial, and educational backgrounds when watching our fellow Americans from across the country come into DC for trips, internships, and jobs.
We recognize a key difference that transcends our demographics: the denial of voting representation in Congress for all District residents. Numbering nearly 600,000 — more than the state population of Wyoming — Washingtonians fight in wars, pay federal and local taxes, and serve on juries. Yet we have no vote in the very political body that decides these issues.
For many District residents, the polarization, disparity and disconnect between DC natives and fellow Americans from other states stems much less from the varying neighborhoods, professions or educational backgrounds that make up the rich fabric of this city and more from the painful irony of the lack of American democracy in America’s capital.
— Molly McArdle - Jul 10, 04:36 PM - #How about just call the city intellectually stimulating, take advantage of that stimulation and return to finishing your liberal arts degree when you’re done. True, there is a big disconnect between the political elites of DC and “everyone else.” Yet, it doesn’t seem like you need to actually go to DC to see that. Although I give you kudos for taking the plunge into the world-o-blogging, it seems that being from middle America (Kentucky), you would have recognized this disparity long before venturing into our nation’s capital.
My advice for you in this great, big city of know-how….befriend the street-dwellers and behind-the-counter people you come across. You may find there is a lot to learn from them as well.
— Daughter Nature - Jul 11, 06:34 PM - #Nathan—nice job confronting your confusion about DC and its politics, but don’t become too jaded too quickly. While this city is unique in some ways, it is like every other city in others. Don’t privilege the confusing—and often negative—traits and characteristics as only belonging in DC.
Also, Rosalie, I was shocked at such a base level of criticism to a higher-order essay. Even though you don’t like the essay, at least criticize it on the same level of thought as the essay itself.
— UMG - Jul 17, 03:13 PM - #