Living in a big city is a dream for many, never a perpetual thought for me, but I thought I’d test that idea out when I landed an internship in New York City this past summer. At Michigan State University, some majors, such as myself, Professional & Public Writing, as well as Public Policy, have to earn experiential credit before graduating. This could range from a study abroad to research to an internship.
That’s what caused me to begin my search for a venture that would (1) fulfill my requirement, and (2) enhance my knowledge of the industry I’d like to pursue: politics. I did the usual search procedure, as so many other college students, scrolling on LinkedIn and Indeed for hours, applying to tens of jobs that will never end up reaching out. That’s when I stumbled across MSU’s College of Arts and Letters NYC internship program.
As it won’t appear on any of the typical job resource websites, I was instead informed about it from a routine CAL internship email. Maggie Harris, the Assistant Director of Internships & Career Education, composed the email and continues to be quite persistent at securing internships for her CAL students. She has the perfect disposition to serve as the liaison between MSU and its partner organization for this program, the American Institute for Foreign Study.
The basics of the program is to conduct several consultations about your interests, previous qualifications, strengths, and weaknesses. The process beginning with Maggie as you make your way through various AIFS staff members. All of these interviews resulted in me landing a placement with a New York State senator, Kevin S. Parker!
Now, unfortunately, the internship was unpaid, but this was a condition in order to receive the six academic credits. They do supply you with dorm-like housing in Brooklyn Heights, right next to the Brooklyn Bridge that will connect you to Manhattan. What they do not cover is traveling costs, but my family drove me there since it was only 10 hours away. Due to this, they recommend saving up $4,500 for personal expenses during the eight weeks you stay there.
This could present as overwhelming at the start, in particular if you’ve never been to NYC before, or if you’re like me, who has never ridden the subway and is terrible at directions. I can assure you though, based on my experience and the consensus from what I heard from the other MSU students in the program, it only takes a week or two to learn how to function in the city. Plus, once you become more comfortable, you get to savor all that NYC has to offer!
A few of my friends flew in to visit me for a weekend since the residence I lived at allows up to seven guest nights a month, which will only cost $5 a night and $10 a night if one person stays four nights or longer. The fee to join the program includes several events and experiences the Internship Placement & Location Coordinator arranges. Meaning by the end of the trip I had attended three Broadway shows, two cultural festivals (French and Japanese), canoed in Central Park, learned how to make homemade dumplings, crafted at an “art cafe,” and visited Chinatown, Little Italy, the Met, and the Museum of Natural History.
One thing you cannot say about NYC is that you’ll get bored, especially because of the diverse population it’s composed of, which is my favorite aspect about the city. I had never tried so many different cultures’ foods before! I love living where I do now because it’s a relatively diverse area, and I feel that immersion in different cultures and conversations with people from varied backgrounds foster a deeper understanding of others, so it’s tougher to fall into unfair judgments. I want to live and raise a family in a place where diversity is, not just hear about it. Also, I loved being in NYC as a political science major when Zohran Mamdani became the first Muslim to win the Democratic mayoral nomination, being able to have discussions with people in politics about it.
Despite all the things I loved about the city, in the end, I decided it’s not the place for me. I think I would like to settle down near a big city in the future to have access to various events and a big community, but overall, I’d prefer a Lansing, Michigan-sized city. Due to the sheer amount of things to do and the levels of tourism in NYC, it led to me feeling overwhelmed by the number of people that would be everywhere all the time. NYC also suffers from the “urban heat island” effect, the phenomenon where urban cities are warmer than surrounding rural areas, and as a Michigan-raised girl, I do not do well in the heat.
While the program is set in NYC, it’s a bonus compared to the primary focus, which, of course, is to develop your resume and skill set as well as refine your professional aspirations. For me, based on my classes at MSU, I’ve learned that I want to write legislation or create bureaucratic standards, a goal affirmed by this program. First of all, my senator’s district office was able to make a day trip to Albany, New York’s capital, to meet his state-level team. Senator Parker is the chairman for the Senate Committee on Energy & Telecommunications, so this is where I met his Committee Director, who focuses on energy legislation, and then his office Director of Operations, who assists in writing the rest of his proposals.
The senator had his team look at his interns’ bill proposals and evaluate them based on potential legal loopholes and likelihood of passage. Mine aimed to require green infrastructure for new building permits in identified coastal erosion hazard areas and eventually, in a phased manner, on pre-existing buildings as well, based on location and environmental conditions.
As for what I learned about career politics in general is the importance of networking with figureheads at the state and district levels and the type of tone you need for writing. The tone for formal pieces is usually advised to be concise and senator-driven for more narrative-forward pieces like those on his website. Not to mention, since I was working in a district office, I got to witness firsthand the hand local politics plays in everyday people’s lives. What’s interesting is that most people are projected to vote depending on how they think election outcomes will affect them personally, but less people vote in local elections, which do affect them more.
To conclude, I’m so grateful to everyone at MSU and AIFS who believed in me enough to receive this opportunity! I acknowledge that politics is quite a competitive field to enter into, so I hope that this experience can give me an extra leg up in the future. I would definitely recommend this program to any students in the College of Arts and Letters at Michigan State University!