My name is Brad Joyner, I am a sophomore Political Science major and this semester I was given the opportunity to work for the Campaign to Re-elect Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez. I found out about the position through an email blast from the Political Science department during finals week last May.

As a freshman with absolutely no political work experience, it seemed like a long-shot to be considered for the position, but I took a chance and sent the Campaign Manager an email with my resume that consisted mostly of… let’s call them “embellished”… high school awards and honors.

It must have been the seamless formatting or the carefully-chosen typeface (Arial, if you’re wondering), but for some reason she was impressed with my resume and called me a few weeks later for an interview.

The interview was fairly standard, and once I noticed the conversation moved from “What’s your greatest weakness?”-style questions, and shifted more towards “Here’s what you’ll be doing here”, I figured out that I had gotten the position.

The work started out slightly tedious, as one expects for an intern. It consisted of a lot of tallying, tracking and organizing the data our canvassers collected, gauging how favorable the voters viewed Congresswoman Sanchez, and other general office work, like marking district maps and organizing survey packets.

As the Election Day drew closer, however, you could feel a definite shift in the office. Apparently I did well organizing data, because soon I was entrusted with bigger tasks, ranging from training new staff to managing other interns and volunteers, to working and attending events with, or on the behalf of, the Congresswomen. With the clock ticking, the hours got longer and still never seemed enough. I was an unpaid intern, but it was impossible not to get wrapped up in the work, and the “horse-race” mentality that comes with elections.

I found myself occasionally working up to 20-some hours a week, almost twice what I was scheduled for. But it meant that I got to work closely with the staff and they got to know me and value me more as a person. When elections were coming to a close, I started to talk to my boss, and the various people she worked with, about further employment with the Congresswoman’s office, as congressional work is what I want to do when I graduate. They were really happy with the effort and the results I put out while working in the office and offered me an internship at the District Office starting this January. A position not far from the one I would have pursued upon graduation.

Working for a campaign, especially one with a staff, and representative as great as Congresswoman Sanchez, has probably been one of the best things I’ve ever done in terms of getting a firmer grasp on my future. Learning about political science is one thing, but actually getting to work in the field has made this major and its implications so much more tangible. It has moved from a vague concept of wanting to work in politics, to a strong understanding, and luckily enough for me, a solid path to what I want to do with my career. All of it was possible because I read my emails, took a shot at a position that I didn’t think I was qualified for and worked hard to prove that I was. I think the moral of the story here is clear: Read your emails!