A Summary For My Class On My White House Internship

Kyra Livingston

Georgetown University

Internship Class

 

Internship Journal Assignment

 

My internship this semester has been a really interesting experience. I have spent every Monday, Wednesday, Friday since September interning at the White House. Before I began the program, sure, I was a little nervous, but all of my bosses have made me realize that I am so lucky to have this position within the most, and only, important government office.

 

The internship is a little different than I expected. I thought I was going to have to be there super early and stay super late, but most of the time our days begin at 11:30 AM and end at 3:00 PM. Sometimes we even get to leave early if the President is busy watching Fox News or Infowars! I am a little concerned that I will not complete the mandatory 200 intern hours before the end of the year, but I’ll make sure to talk to Mr. Pence about that again. The last time I asked him about my hours, he told me if I need to make up some numbers, I should go to Secretary Mnuchin. I am not sure why I would need to make up numbers since I did not miss any hours, but Mr. Pence gets really busy running the internship program, it’s a lot for him to deal with in addition to nodding behind the President at the State of the Union. Or, he could’ve been uncomfortable since we I am a girl who was in his office. He did mention his wife every sentence.

 

I get to do a lot of important tasks as an intern–which has been a great learning experience. Yes, I have to go on lunch runs every day, but McDonald’s is right around the corner, so it’s not that bad. Other than getting lunch and Diet Cocoffee (half coffee, half diet Coca Cola), I get to attend some important meetings. I don’t always know what is happening in the meetings because I can’t see the half-paper of information that the President is given. But, usually, Mrs. Huckabee Sanders tells us about everything that happened after the meeting is over. A few of the meetings that they say we’ve seen is when President Trump took down Osama Bin Laden, when he knocked down the Berlin wall, and when he officially seceded from the North during the civil war. Also, I run memos between departments. Usually, they’re handwritten notes between members of the President’s cabinet that I have to burn after, but others are more fun. For example, I delivered this really cute drawing to the President from his son. When he found out that the President put it up on the wall in the oval office, Eric Trump was even more proud of his colored pencil skills.

 

There are some things I was a little bit let down by. For example, I was excited to get to sit in on all of the press conferences the President does, but it turns out he doesn’t really do that many. During the ones he does have, I get to pass the microphone between the different reporters. Think of it as a ball girl at a tennis match, except sometimes I’m supposed to walk in the middle of the game and steal the ball from one of the players. This was something I wasn’t accustomed to, but they had me practice by catching a fly with chopsticks.

 

I was worried because this week I tried to rip a microphone out of one of the fake news CNN reporter’s hands and I didn’t get it. It was okay though because my bosses stood up for me and said the reporter put his hands on me. They even edited together a nice little video to prove it. Isn’t that nice, I bet none of the other girls in our internship class has their bosses edit a slow-motion video of them!

 

So, I am so glad I got an internship at the White House. I wasn’t sure if I was qualified–I had never had any other internships, participated in student government, or even applied. But, once I began, I feel like I have done a really good job.  They tell me that, with how much they promote people, I could probably be running the EPA, HUD, or even state department by next summer. I mean, isn’t that the point of an internship, to get hired one day? So I would say that my internship has been a success!