Elliott Stewart GS 490 blog

This week at my internship has really slowed down. The congressman that I'm representing has lost his competition for the primary. The other guy who was going to oppose him dropped out because he didn't complete his petitions to be placed on the ballet. Those very same petitions I have been working with during my time  as an intern. That made me realize that the work I'm doing at first might not seem extremely exciting but its very important to the overall goal. 

Now that we don't have to worry about debates with a same party candidate, the campaign is starting to focus on the future goals for when the election starts to heat up. There is a lot of talk about fund raising and planning events for public recognition. I've kind of went back to the normal work answering phones, doing trips to the post office, and interring and interpreting data. I’m still enjoying my time during the internship and I would recommend to everyone to take the opportunity to work in their field because it’s helped me see what life after college would or could be like in the real world.  

4th post (GS 490)

This week was a little more exciting because we had to have all our petitions in to the secretary of state’s office so our candidate could be put on the ballot. The other candidate that was running for the republican nomination didn’t get the requirements in so he didn’t get placed on the ballot. The election will be slowing down for a little because it’s really far away from now and the person I work for is a congressmen and he needs to be in Washington D.C so all his attention isn’t on the election right now. This last Saturday our campaign got to eat with Mitch Daniels which was really exciting. I got my first chance to do some kind of independent research and that was really motivating that the higher ups would trust me to do important research for them.

3rd Blog (Elliott Stewart GS 490)

This was my third week at my internship. The past few times in the office haven’t been overly exciting but the work I’m doing is still important. I have been entering important data about different supporters across the state. This is necessary so that the campaign can contact supporters and let them know about events in their areas. Also I have been running errands for the office to different locations. Mainly I have been in charge of putting important information into envelopes and making sure they will get to the proper locations and in time. This has actually made me double check my work because we send out a lot of things to all over Indiana and to Washington D.C. A lot of the stuff we send is time sensitive so if I messed up the address or shipped it wrongly the info wouldn’t make it to where it needs to be. There should be more events coming up that I hope to get involved with on the weekends like fundraising diners.  

2nd Blog (Elliott Stewart GS 490)

I’m now starting to become comfortable with common tasks handed down to me on day to day bases. When answering the phones I confidently respond with the proper greeting while getting the information from each caller to determine what to do with them. It feels good to be confident and I think it projects to the people who come in to the office. I hope they feel that the information I give them is correct and they can count on it.

One thing I did especially like this week was when I started to eat lunch with the whole office and got to talk with them about other topics other then work. All of us are up to date on current affairs and especially dealing with politics and it’s very interesting to be able to discuss the issues. I do get to do this in my classes but it’s not always so in-depth because the teachers don’t want to be bias and they also have their points that they have to make.

Something I do need to work on learning the names of all the employees better. With it being a campaign everyone is in and out of the office and from meeting to meeting. I can tell I’m doing better with the workers that I work with directly but I still need to look up some names or ask about them. I look forward to the upcoming weeks because the campaign will start appearing at more events and I will have the opportunity to attend some of the events.    

Starting Out (Elliott Stewart GS 490)

I'm currently in my second week of my new internship and would like to describe the steps I took to receive this great opportunity. First was the process of actually finding the right internship for me and one that would put my skills to good use. This at first wasn't a easy task. I would look all over the internet trying to find a position that would work around me still being a full time student and that would also be within driving distance from Purdue University. I research and was disappointed that I could find anything that would fit my criteria. Then a good friend of mine informed me about the internship that I'm currently in today.

I looked into the opportunity and found that it would be a great fit for me if I could get it. I found the requirements of the application and started working to update my resume. That's one thing I would tell everyone in college to do, build a resume now with your highest achievements, then when it comes time to apply for a specific internship you can tailor the information to better show how you would be a good fit for that position. I sent in the resume and cover letter the intern supervisor and waited to hear back.

I got a call from the office about four to five days latter asking if I could come down for an interview. I set the time and date and began to think of questions they might ask me and how I would answer them. Also I came up with questions that I had about the internship to make sure it was right for me. After the interview I was offered the position and I told them I would have to think about it over night. It was a big time commitment for me and I needed to make sure I could revise my class schedule to allow me to take the position.

I started the internship last week and on the first day I started right in with organizing ballots that had to be sent out that week. This is a very important task because there were about sixteen thousand signatures that need to be organized into counties of Indiana and then verified for authenticity. This obviously took me the first couple days to do.

This week is a little less hectic and now I’m being shown around the office and how to do daily tasks that need to be done while doing other jobs. For example I was shown how to work the printers, intercom, phone system, and other tasks that will be necessary for me to know. I’m really enjoying my position right now and I’m looking forward to the weeks to come.