Sailor Nichols is a first year with a great opportunity to talk about. This semester, she’s been interning on a political campaign here in Atlanta for Stacey Abrams, a candidate for governor. Her Campus was lucky enough to sit down with Sailor during finals week to hear about her experience. In this article, Sailor explains why this internship has been such a good experience for her.
HC: What exactly is your internship?
Sailor: I’m interning for the Stacey Abrams campaign. She’s running for governor. I’m one of their field interns, which is sort of like the voter contact department. So I’m basically calling people, knocking on doors, telling people why Stacey Abrams should be and is going to be our next governor. I’m also helping out with other stuff. I’m helping fun 1000 Women Strong, which is a coalition of democratic women across the state who are helping to elect Stacey. And I’m just doing whatever they need me to do.
HC: Awesome! So what is it like working on a political campaign, even just as an intern? Do you get to see everything that goes into the campaign?
Sailor: Yeah! I get to see a lot. I get to meet interesting, powerful, dynamic people all the time. It’s like I’m just in a room with all of my role models at the same time every day. It’s just so fantastic, especially since local politics is what I want to be doing. The kind of campaign Stacey Abrams is running is the kind of campaign I want to run, so getting to learn from that firsthand at a campaign headquarters that’s just right down the road is just brilliant. It’s fantastic.
HC: You said this is the field you want to go into. What are you majoring in?
Sailor: Right now the plan is to double major in history and political science. I feel like it’s important to know how those laws came about if you want to change them, and it’s important to know the context of what you’re working in. I also want to teach for a while. Currently the plan is to double major in history and political science, get my teaching certificate in history, teach history while I’m working on my doctorate in political science, and then be a political science professor while I’m figuring out what kind of campaign I want to run.
HC: That’s great, you’ve got everything figured out. Do you feel like this experience has helped you personally?
Sailor: Absolutely. I was unsure of what I wanted to do until I started working for this campaign, and then I realized, holy crap, this is what I want to be doing every single day for the rest of my life. It’s brilliant.
HC: What’s your favorite part of the experience?
Sailor: I’m tempted to say the snack room… They do have a very good snack corner. But I think I’m going to say that my favorite part is that this is someone who I would want to be. My favorite part is Stacey Abrams. She’s brilliant. She’s the kind of person who remembers your name. She speaks so eloquently. Whenever you see her, she’s got this gravitas. It’s just impressive and exciting to be around. It makes you feel important. And I feel like I’m going into the office two or three times a week making a difference.
HC: That’s really cool. Do you think you’re going to do more internships like this in the future?
Sailor: Oh absolutely yes. I don’t know if I’m going to be doing campaigns specifically, as much as I love working on this one. I think I love this one because of who I’m working for. So in the future I think I would probably want to do some sort of legislative internship or something like that.
HC: Okay, is there anything else you want to say about the experience in general? Or about Stacey Abrams herself?
Sailor: She’s fantastic. If you want to intern for her, connect with me! I’ll get you to the right people. They have good snacks. And it’s just very exciting working for the next governor of Georgia.
Thanks so much to Sailor for talking to us! The internship definitely sounds like an amazing experience. We hope to see more from Sailor in the future, maybe even her own campaign one day. If you’d like to know more, feel free to contact Sailor.