Capitol Hill and the Final Stretch

Today, our interns traded the classroom for Capitol Hill, spending most of the day meeting with more than 20 representatives. After a week spent building policy arguments from the ground up, this was the moment all of that preparation was for: sitting down with the people who actually turn policy into law, making their case, and fielding real questions in real time. There is a difference between writing a policy brief and defending it across a table from someone with the power to act on it, and today our interns got to feel that difference firsthand.

Meeting with that many offices in a single day is no small task. It meant interns had to be sharp and adaptable, adjusting their pitch from one meeting to the next, reading the priorities of each office, and finding the throughline that connected their work to the person in front of them. It is the kind of experience that turns policy work from an academic exercise into a real, practiced skill, and judging by how far they've come this week, our interns were more than ready for it.

Following their time on the Hill, interns closed out the day with a final session with attorney Brandi Harden. Brandi has been a constant presence throughout this program, showing up again and again to work directly with interns on their casework, and this last session was a chance to tie all of that mentorship together.

With a full day on Capitol Hill behind them and Brandi's guidance fresh in mind, our interns are ready for tomorrow's presentations. It has been a week of building. arguments, relationships, and hard-won skills, and tomorrow is where all of it finally comes together. We could not be prouder of how far this cohort has come.