My Internship Experience at the DNR

My internship working with the DNR’s Legislative Liaisons (basically a government funded lobbyist) has truly been an education in policy and politics in the real world; while at the same time being a lot of fun and getting to work directly with the legislators that make decisions that affect our lives daily.

My first day on the job was the first day of the legislative session. And with the shortened session, to save money, there was no time to waste, meetings and policy lobbying started immediately. This first week or so I felt uncomfortable at times and out of place as I sat in on committee meetings and meetings with individual legislators.

As session began to roll along I became much more comfortable working with and getting to know legislators and caucus staff; while they may seem to make some unwise decisions there are a lot of neat and fascinating people serving the public.

Some of my tasks included helping track legislation, scheduling meetings, creating bill summaries, and taking notes at meetings. Some of the work was less glamorous (like reading through the 150 page plus government reorganization bill to find the areas that may affect the DNR). But I learned quickly that doing this reading and research was worth it, because provides the information for the fun part: lobbying

The most important thing I gained as part of this internship for me was that it solidified my desire to pursue a career in politics and government work and to continue with law school once my undergrad is done. Working with policy, interest groups, lobbyists, and legislators was extremely interesting and rewarding work. I had been intimidated about a career in government work and if I would be able to understand and comprehend budget and in depth legislation. But in my months working with the DNR and their policy and budget I saw, while still a lot to learn, that it is work I can see myself doing in the future and that it may be hard, it is work I could handle if I dedicated myself.

This experience also taught me how to be effectively work with and communicate with legislators and getting them to realize important information. Being able to sit in and help discuss and decide what different lobbying strategies to use has given me insight I can use in my future as an everyday citizen. I plan on using these skills I developed in the future to speak out to legislators when I find myself having strong opinions on a matter.

This internship experience has been great in teaching me about the political process. Seeing the thousand different ways to kill a bill makes me realize what an accomplishment it is to get more than just ‘feel good’ legislation through. It has also helped me plan for my future career, while being extremely fun and getting to meet and work with some great people. It has been an extremely valuable experience I will not forget.

-Jacob T.