I met with Madame Hall Senator Liz Brown on a late afternoon in November, in the common room of our dorm. In the few minutes she carved out of her busy day, the Vermont native spoke to me about her incredible gap year, her activities on campus, and all the women who inspire her.
You’re a first year and you took a gap year before coming to Mount Holyoke. What did you do during that time?
I graduated high school with the idea that I wanted to take a gap year. I had the idea a couple of years before and I was thinking maybe I’ll travel around the world. I was really interested in girls education in Africa, so I was thinking maybe I’d do something with that. Then I read Senator Kirsten Gillibrand’s book Off The Sidelines and she became my number one hero. Not only did I decide that I wanted to be like her, but my mom said I should look into getting an internship with her for my gap year. I didn’t even really know what that meant. I didn’t know anybody who had taken an internship on the Hill before, but I found some contact information and I sent some cold emails (or emails sent with no prior contact).
At school the next week I was giving a speech and afterwards Bernie Sanders’ daughter was there. I was introduced to her and I mentioned that I was really into politics and wanted an internship with Gillibrand. She said I should look into her father’s internship as well. She gave me the contact information for a few people, I sent them cold emails and basically I spent the next few weeks filling out applications for Sanders and Gillibrand. Then I went to DC and had a sit down session with Sanders’ internship coordinator. I met her in the Senate and gave her all my information and resume in this manilla folder. She asked me if I watched Parks and Recreation and said I reminded her of Leslie Knope! People tell me that all the time! She told me that if I didn’t get this job it wasn’t because I wasn’t qualified. It was because they had never hired someone who was 18 years old before. Usually interns are in college or graduate school. My heart dropped. I thought I was never going to get this because I hadn’t even graduated high school yet. I spent the entire summer applying to every nonprofit and democratic think tank in DC. I probably sent out 60 applications. I was hoping to just get something because I had nothing to do. Then I got an email from Senator Sanders’ office saying I got an interview. I hadn’t heard from Gillibrand. I interviewed for Senator Sanders’ office, thinking I was never going to get it, but then I got an email from Senator Sanders himself saying that I had gotten the internship! I had never been more surprised in my life. I worked in his office from September until December, mostly doing legislative work and constituent correspondence.
Still, in the back of my mind, Kirsten Gillibrand was my biggest hero. The idea of working for a woman—and a woman that I admired so much—was still something I really wanted to do. I did this thing where I would go around and get signed photos of senators that inspired me. I wanted Senator Gillibrand to sign my copy of her book, and just on the off chance that it was her who signed the book, and not just an intern like I suspected, I wrote this great letter and stuck it in the book. I brought it to the office, and the next day I got an email saying the senator had read my letter, signed my book, and that she wanted to meet me! The next week I spoke with her for a little bit, but mostly talked to her internship coordinator and expressed how much I wanted to work in the office and how much she meant to me. A few weeks later I just threw in an application for her internship, and I got an interview. After the interview, the man told me that he had decided to give me the position even before the interview. January, February, and March I worked for her as her scheduling intern.
I met so many amazing people, watched history being made, got to go to votes whenever I wanted. I saw the Comprehensive Addiction Act being passed, I saw the Every Child Succeeds Act being passed, I got to see President Obama speak, and I got a really good look at how the Senate works. And, I got to work for the two best senators in the country!
Did you do anything else after your time on the Hill?
When I got back to Vermont, I was there for about two weeks and then I went to Kenya for two months to teach English to Maasai children. I was really nervous before I went because I had absolutely no idea what I was going to be doing. I got there the day before and I look at the schedule and I’m teaching English and social studies. I was so scared, I had no idea I would be given so much responsibility. The kids speak Maasai at home. Swahili and English are the national languages but the children i was teaching don’t speak either. I knew that only being able to speak English was going to be a big challenge on the classroom, both for me and for them. I had 160 students, and I have never been more challenged in my life. They were absolutely incredible, the hardest working kids I’ve ever met, especially the girls. But, it was such a challenge just to get the room to be quiet. Most of the girls I was teaching will get married before 18, many of them go through Female Genital Mutilation, and they basically have no rights. When a Maasai woman is married her father trades her for a goat or a cow. They are at school every day from 6am to 5pm and then they go home to make dinner, walk miles to collect water, and on the weekends they collect firewood. These girls are facing incredible odds.
How do you think these experiences influenced you, particularly when it comes to what you want to study and your extracurriculars?
I have always wanted to go into politics, and a lot of people when they go to do a congressional internship on the Hill, they walk away thinking, “I do not want to do this”. The work is too slow, I won’t get paid enough, I could do something much better with my time. However, I walked away thinking this is exactly what I want to do. It made me want to run for office. My bosses were two incredible people. Both Sanders and Gillibrand have remained so humble, and all they want to do is make people’s lives better, and I think they’re doing a really good job of it. So it made me really want to run for office, maybe for Senate, but I am very happy to start with city council and even student government here at Mount Holyoke.
What activities have you been involved with at Mount Holyoke?
My main activity is student government. I am the senator for my amazing dorm, and I really enjoy it. I feel like I am getting an inside look into how the school works and I am gaining some great skills. I am also involved in College Democrats and we’ve had a very busy fall as you can imagine.
Who inspires you?
Number one is the amazing Senator Kirsten Gillibrand. Also of course Hillary Clinton, she is one of my biggest role models. Really any woman who is in a position of leadership right now. Only 17% of Congress is made up of women. Every one of those women, Republican and Democrat, are inspirations to me because they are doing something that is so unprecedented. But really all the Democratic women in the senate, Elizabeth Warren, Barbara Boxer. I’m so excited that Maggie Hassan is going to be in the Senate. And I am very excited for our first woman President — it will happen soon! We have to keep fighting!
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