Up On Capitol Hill
By Dana Halvorson '05
After interning in Sen. Kent Conrad's North Dakota and Washington, D.C., offices while in college, I'm excited to be working for him again. I was hired this summer as a staff assistant in the U.S. Senate Budget Committee Office, of which Sen. Conrad is the ranking member. Each day, I find myself deep in the political process, working on Medicare, Medicaid, health care and welfare issues. I spend much of my time researching these issues in regard to constituents' concerns. I also meet with various groups regarding health care issues, passing their concerns through the senator's office.
I knew I would enjoy working on Capitol Hill and helping the people of North Dakota - and I was right! It is an amazing experience working here and it's allowing me to work in a field of my interest before going back to school. As a political science major and Spanish minor, I had intended on heading straight to law school, but now I'm hoping to discover whether some other opportunities, such as graduate school or continuing to work on the Hill, are my vocational calling.
Concordia College truly prepared me for life after college. The liberal arts education allowed me to try a variety of classes and I also had the opportunity to study in Washington, D.C., my last semester. The Lilly Call to Serve Project also helped me pursue my interests of working for the state and national governments, providing me with grants to fund my studies. I will never forget the wonderful education I received and friends I made at Concordia.
