Paid Legislative Internships

It's the waiting that kills you, right?

Well, thanks for logging in everybody. We're going to give all our participants just about another minute or two before we get going.

And we'll start here in about 2 minutes.

And with the log in starting to slow down, I think we'll get going right now and and welcome everybody. My name is Aaron Betzner. I'm the associate director of admissions and part of the education team here at the University of Illinois, Springfield. Before we get going with the presentation today, I've got a couple of housekeeping items to quickly go over, so you're all aware this webinar is being recorded and will be made available for viewing, so don't feel like you've got to take frantic notes.

We will, within your share screen you'll see that there's a closed captioning option. It's in the bar in the top right corner. It's a little CC button next to it is the option to make the video full screen. If you would like that as well.

If you need to re sync your audio or video at any point, don't worry. Just refresh your browser and that should clear things up for you. Questions we love them. That's what the chats for, and we'll have multiple people from UIS on the chat to help answer some of those questions for you.

Thank you so much and with that I want to introduce you to our graduate program director for the legislative paid internship programs, Barbara Van **** along with Jocelyn and Myra who also work in the program. We're going to go through today. A little bit of our Illinois legislative staff internship program. So with that Barbara, I'll turn it over to you.

Great thank you Erin. Yes I I just wanted to take a minute to introduce Myra as the assistant director for our Office of graduate intern programs, and then Jocelyn also is a graduate public service intern that is in our office and she also assists with the recruiting for Alsip and so this is a great opportunity.

Or both of them to participate in and learn more about the program too. So let's just get started. The first thing that I wanted to to talk about is, is that this is a full time paid internship, and so while we are open to international students, it is primarily for the OPTC. So you would have to have completed your graduate degree and then be pursuing additional training.

Related to legislative process, so policy related or something like that. In order for you to be eligible for this internship, I just wanted to get that out there right there in the beginning. So it is a full time paid internship. It's very different from the graduate Public Service internship which does accept international students and that you are eligible to apply for with your F1 visa full time. It means that you're working 40 hours a week.

So you're not pursuing an education so much. I have had some interns that have preceded with their graduate degree or use the credits that they get in the program towards their graduate degree, but primarily the ILSE program is about gaining experience in the legislative process.

It's it's a different kind of position than you see in most offices. Uhm, there's a lot of technical kinds of skills that you are required to have or or will learn through the internship program. That's very different than your normal office setting, so the purpose of Bill SIP is primarily to to provide graduate students with an opportunity to learn about the legislative process.

And to gain some understanding of the kinds of positions that are available working for the legislature, I know a lot of students immediately think political science that you have to be a political science major to participate in elsif or or maybe just a public policy or public administration that only those kinds of degrees would be appropriate for this kind of position and they would be wrong. And the reason I say that is because the kinds of positions that.

We have our research and appropriation.

And also communication. So if you're an English major, creative writing, communication, marketing, advertising, those are all positions that would lend themselves well to a communication position with the legislature, because what would you be doing with the legislature? You would be providing legislators with communication with their particular constituents.

So so, for instance, you might be doing newsletters. You might be doing press releases and it is even expanded to video, so monitoring their website, doing all kinds of things related to website development, posting video all those kinds of things to help constituents stay informed about what their legislators up to and what's going on in the district. So for all of those reasons.

Communication major, it's a perfect fit. It's it's a job niche that you might not think about as a communication major or as a marketing major because it is about getting the word out about getting a message out. It's just a policy message that you're talking about for a financial person accountancy.

A lot of the math data management, even you might find in terms of the the budget, because as a legislative intern you're you're not only working on the policy side, you're also working on the budget site, so you're helping to develop the budget. And what does that mean? Well, it means Excel, Excel spreadsheets. It means calling those state agencies, finding out what their numbers look like, and communicating with them about what they want to see in the budget.

And then if that can't happen, then you're having to say, OK, we're going to have to, you know, take some cuts here. And what does that look like for you? And in the end, all of these different pieces of the budget come together to form the actual state budget that gets passed by the General Assembly. It's called appropriations, because this the legislators responsibility to appropriate the dollars for all the programs that this.

The state provides.

So normally those appropriation positions are tide up with the UM, the research positions as well. So how does that work? Well, you normally these positions are with each of the committees. So for instance, if you're working with the with the Committee on Higher Education, then you are actually doing the policy related to the higher education and you're also doing the budgets, the appropriations.

Better related to higher education, so you can actually see where those tie together.

So those are the kinds of positions, and So what happens if you're environmental science? Well, there are committees related to environmental science. There are committees related to public health. There are committees related to your your education. You know both in terms of your higher education and then also your your K through 12. So again, you can see that there's a lot of.

Of opportunities there.

One of the things that that people sometimes get a little hung up on is, well, what happens if you know I get into the internship but I don't get a position that's directly related to my to my major. What happens then and my response to them is it doesn't really matter and the reason is because you're learning the process and learning the process in whatever area you're in will apply to your major.

So you're learning a skill set, and you can still apply it to your major, even though you might not be doing that work right now.

So let's talk a little bit about the internship. First of all, I said it was full time.

It's it's a paid internship, so it's 10 1/2 months. It starts in August, August the 16th runs through June the 30th.

And then, in terms of the internships, they're both partisan, which are political.

So you're talking about positions with House Republicans, Senate Republicans, House Democrats, Senate Democrats, and then. Also, there is not. There are also non partisan positions and that is with the Commission and government forecasting and accountability. And what kinds of things would you be doing there? Well, you'd still be doing research, but you'd be doing research related to particular particular legislative requests. So a legislator has an issue that they want to know more about. They would make a request.

To the Commission and then the Commission would assign that to one of their researchers, which might be you. And then you would you know, fulfill that research request. They also do a number of publications. They're also responsible for pension notes, so there's also some skills that you would learn your legal research skills would come into play there. We've had quite a few of our our legislative interns that have done.

The research positions at COG and then they have preceded to go ahead and go to law school after that, and it is really been a great bridge for them. That gap year that that sometimes people will talk about they want to take a gap year before they start their law degree. Well this is a great great opportunity for someone who who's wanting to take that gap year. So So what are you going to gain? You're going to gain policy making experience.

You're going to develop or practice those legal research skills.

If you're working on committee, you could possibly be drafting legislation. You'll definitely be Ant, you know, analyzing legislation, writing up briefs, telling the legislators what that particular piece of legislation is about your kind of the shepherd of that piece of legislation, because you're assigned to higher Ed. For instance, if you're on the higher Ed committee, then all the bills that come before higher Ed, you're the one that's kind of responsible for knowing that topic area. And while that might sound.

A little intimidating. The truth is that you're the one that will have your fingers on all of the information related to those bills, so you will become the expert just by you. Know the facts, the the fact from a practical standpoint, you'll have access to everything and not anyone else will.

So benefits, we're talking about $2400 per month.

And that's before taxes or any deductions. And then we also have a tuition waiver. 2 credits. In the fall is for the seminar and then 2 credits in the spring is for your your experience as a legislative intern. Those credits are transferable. You can use them towards a degree here at UAS.

I'd like to say that Alsip is it can either be torture degree or a lot of folks that you know they're not interested in pursuing a degree. They're looking for, UM, they're ready to go to work, and they're just not sure what they wanna do, and this is a great opportunity for you to kind of test your wings in this area and see if this is something that that meets your expectations for for employment for a career.

We also offer paid in paid health insurance which we cover all your tuition fees. We pay for your insurance and it's a paid position so you're really set. You know, as far as the the academic side of it.

For folks that are completing their graduate degree, they're thinking OK.

I've got my degree. I don't know where I'm going. Undergraduate degree. I've got my degree. I don't know where I'm going. This is kind of an icing on the cake. And why do I call it the icing on the cake? Well, because when you have this opportunity, this internship on your resume, it puts you in a class by yourself. There are 24 internships each year.

If you get one.

Then you are in very high high high stakes because there are so few of them.

And when going through the internship, you will learn how the legislative process works, not hypothetically, not from, you know, an academic perspective, but practically speaking, you'll be living it so you'll have an opportunity hands-on to know how it works.

How does that apply? Well, it applies if you want to pursue a career in the legislative arena. If you wanna be a lobbyist. If you wanna work for corporate America.

They need to have people that that communicate with the legislature as well. And if you're one of those people, then you can be a linchpin.

You know it puts you in a different place than anybody else that might be within the corporate structure from a non profit standpoint, executive directors often need to take on that responsibility of knowing what's happening with the law and what's happening with the legislature. And as an executive director, having that on your resume saying, oh, you've been, you know, in on the staff the legislative staff means that you understand how that process.

Works and so anybody else that might be applying for that position, the chances of them having that experience are going to be very small. So again, it makes your resume pop so.

I can tell you that of all the interns that I've seen going through the program in the last 20 years, that.

I can't name one that has said after the experience. I wouldn't do this again or it wasn't a good experience for me. They might not have had the best experience that they wanted because it turned out differently than they thought, but even those that felt like it wasn't the best match for them will say it was the best best experience in terms of learning what I needed to learn from it.

And it was good for me, even if it wasn't the perfect match. It was good for me.

And so I really encourage you to take a look at it and see if that's something that you would like to. You know learn more about. So there's more information at gouis.edu/elsif so you can learn more about the program. You can learn more about the application process and we hope to have some vignettes up there soon, so you'll be able to hear some other people talking about there.

Legislative internship experiences as well, so I'd like to open it up to see if if there are questions. Any questions about Ilsa?

On Barb, we do have one. I was just about to type but we can talk about it. Someone asks is the educational leadership program applicable to this legislative internship?

That's a good question. Uhm?

I'd I know that I have actually done some teaching in the educational leadership program.

Uhm, and we you know, as a part of that process I did teach about the legislative process. So yes, you could definitely gain some experience here. But in terms of.

Weather

this credit could be used towards your educational leadership.

Program, that's something that you would need to raise, you know, with the the the department. They would need to answer that question for you.

Well, the students are thinking of other questions potentially. I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about maybe some of the recent. Oh there is one question in the chat, so I'll say mine and then you can also answer this one in the chat as well, but maybe some recent graduates next steps, like maybe where they went, types of of jobs that they went into. If you could kind of talk about that like where this program could lead a student, but the students question in the chat.

Is I would love to confirm if the communication course is STEM, I would recommend that you look on our website and I can find you a link. I believe that the masters of communication at you is a Master of Arts, so to my knowledge it's not stem but I can send you the website and there's a contact for that program as well so you can reach out to them directly for that one.

So as far as your career, kind of what happens, you know what? What do our interns do after the completion of the intern program? Well, part of the purpose of the program was not only to educate students about the career opportunities with the legislature, but also to provide a refresh.

For the legislature, it's a two way St. They learn from interns and I would say even that some of the the nuances related to social media and website developments and the videotaping that they do now or have started doing more and more is is because of the students that have been a part of the program.

One year there was a specific interest in having a Spanish speaking interns, and part of that was trying to provide more materials that were bilingual and so it's it's kind of an ongoing thing. What do what do you know? Former interns do, one of them is that they stay on staff, so I would say that oftentimes as many as as 50% can be hired.

And that's that's part of the beauty of it. Is that and I I kind of talk about it as being like a baseball in the sense of, you know you, you have the the farm team and the farm team is basically kind of, uh, uh.

A place where the main team can go and pick up people if they find people you know. If they have, you know opportunities that come up.

In the major leagues, you know they'll come down to the farm team and they'll they'll pick up a pitcher, for instance. And so this same thing is true for the legislature that the legislature often turns to the Illinois Legislative staff interns to fill those vacancies that come up. And just as a for instance, we have actually had three interns this year that have been hired on midterm, so they didn't even finish their internship before they were hired on by the legislature.

So, so there's that piece of it. Some interns, like I said earlier, like to use it as a gap year, so they use it as an opportunity to gain some experience and then pursue law school. I have had some interns that have actually postponed law school. They've been accepted into law school, thought this was a great opportunity. Have put it off, and in fact in a couple instances they've put it off for another year because they did the internship.

They had an opportunity to work on staff they wanted to have that additional year of experience on staff and then so they actually delayed their their start date for law school another year so that they could have that legislative experience. And I would even go so far to say that sometimes that experience with the legislature because you have that the law schools are willing to pick up part of the cost.

Of your law school, so it can benefit you financially as well, so there's that piece of it. Of course, you know a lot of our our interns end up either they may end up first on staff, but then within a couple of years they may end up being the liaison for a state agency, so they're kind of the point person for the legislate. All the legislation with Human Services, for instance.

Or for the state police, or for transportation. So all of those various departments have kind of a key person that's in charge of their legislation, and those are positions that often our interns will move into after they've had a little bit more time on staff.

Some of our interns stay on staff. I mean I have some that have, you know, come into the internship through, you know, come into the internship and then going on to staff and stayed there. I mean retiring from staff. The program has been around that long so they've actually retired. Currently the Commission on Government forecasting accountability, they're director.

Is a former Alsip intern that came up through the House Republican staff. The same is true for their research director who came up from the Senate Republican staff.

Uh, we also have a couple of chiefs of staff. The current chief of staff for the Senate Republicans, Jenna Mitchell, is a former Alsip intern.

So is for the House Republicans? Uhm, I'm trying. I'm gonna forget his name right now. Brian. Brian is also a former Elsif intern, and so you find them throughout a state government. You find them within the legislature outside of the legislature. Some will pursue law school, some will go into state agencies. So when you or even a membership organizations.

Like the Manufacturers Association.

The insurance professional groups you know they have former interns that are actually doing the legislative work for them.

Within education there have been a couple of lobbying groups related to education that you know have former Alsip interns in them. Also, the treasurer's office. I mean it, it doesn't just limit to state agencies. You know. You see them throughout government, whether it's treasurer or controller or a governor's office. And of course you know. I always like to point it for former governor.

Edgar former Governor Edgar is a former Alsip intern. That's how he started his career, so you know they go far and wide also.

Cheri Bustos, Congressman Congresswoman Cheri Bustos is a former Alsip intern.

So they hit the congressional level. We have quite a few that are up in congressional offices. We have one that was an event planner for President Trump.

We have one that has been in charge of communications for the legislature in Ohio for the replica Republican side.

Uhm, we've had some that have gone into the Budget Office.

In DC so.

There's really, you know, it's just kind of a question of what you want to do and and even currently right now we have a lot of the liaisons for higher Ed are also former ALSIP interns.

Great thanks Barb. And I know there are two other questions I believe, but first one we have is as you mentioned, there are total of 24 positions available. Can you clarify how many graduates applied for these positions? Like what are the chances of.

Of positions being awarded to the students.

Sure, sure, ideally I'd like to see 100 applicants, but that's not what we've been running. We've been running between about 50 or 60 applicants for the program, which means that it's you know it's about one out of two.

Are going to get positions we have had fewer Republicans than Democrats, so it's not always an even playing field. And the reason why I bring that up is because from an application standpoint, we don't ask your partisan persuasion at the time of the application, but if you're selected to interview, then you'll be interviewing either with the House and Senate Democrats or the House and Senate Republicans, and so at that point you will be asked whether you would be.

Interviewing as a Republican or a Democrat.

He

and then just a quick mention of the application process. I put it in the chat, but Barb if you wanna let them know how they can go about applying for Elsa.

Sure, because it is a graduate program. You would have to complete a graduate application to be selected for the program. So we have as of last year, moved into an online application that's the same as the graduate application that you that everyone uses here at UAS. So it's the the the graduate application most of the ill slip interns are not pursuing in degrees, so if you're not.

Pursuing a degree, then you don't have to run through a particular department so you don't have to identify with public administration or political science or.

Or a business for instance. So because you don't have to identify a program, you just go as a non degree seeking student and so that's how you would complete your application. And when you go into the application process once you do the initial part of the application, it will ask you if you're interested in applying for the Illinois Legislative Staff Intern program and you would just click on that and when you click on that it will automatically take you to the requirements for application.

And those requirements include not just the online form, but submission of a resume.

And then there's an essay portion, and there are four parts to the essay, actually three parts to the essay.

And then in addition to that, you need to submit official transcripts.

And three letters of recommendation.

If you were applying to the Commission, the nonpartisan piece and you can actually mark whether you wanna just apply for partisan, or if you want to apply for partisan and for the Commission. So the research, and if you do both, then you also would need to include a an additional writing sample, which is basically like a term paper with citations. That's gonna show that your analytical and research capacity.

OK.

Yeah, and there was one more question that I was typing madly in the chat to answer. But Zach asked how many House and Senate Republican slash Democrat positions are there and how many non partisan positions will there be.

Sure there is 5. There are five positions for each of the Staffs, so 20 positions are partisan and four positions are nonpartisan. So there are four positions with the Commission on Government forecasting and accountability, and then five positions with Senate Republicans, 5 positions with House Republicans, 5 positions with Senate Democrats and five positions with House Democrats.

Now within each of those partisan Staffs they may divide them up differently, so some of them may have two that are communication and three that are research and a probe.

I know the Senate Republicans tend to have appropriation separately.

And not have that tide to a research, you know, a committee position.

But the other Staffs generally do.

And there is another one, Zach gotta follow up are the nonpartisan positions not really for communication majors?

On the non partisan positions are are going to be all about research and so there is a certain amount of communication because you're reaching out to people to find out different pieces of information that you're then including in a research document. So I think it kind of depends on what you want to do with your communication degree, but the end product for most of those research.

Assignments is a brief, so you're putting together a brief on a particular topic that then is handed over to the legislator that requested it.

And there has been. This may be our last topic of conversation, but there has been a a little traffic in the chat regarding international students being eligible and Barb mentioned it briefly. But and I put an answer in the chat, but international students who are on their opete period can do and apply for Alsip. But if you're an international student on an F1 visa currently studying in the US for a degree, then you would not be eligible so.

Right?

You just need to make sure that because the F1 visa restricts international students to only working 20 hours per week and this is a full time internship that works 40 hours per week. Unfortunately, that's where the restrictions come into play there, but certainly after you after you finish on your F1 visa and apply for opete, this could be an opportunity for you, absolutely.

And we have had international students that have participated with their opiate.

Any other questions?

We will be having another webinar coming up on March the 1st.

To talk about the application process and we also have a webinar that's actually going to be next week where we have an opportunity to talk to.

Some of our former interns, so if that's something I actually will be sending that out to all the people that have participated in this call, we have your information, and so I'll be sure and send you a flyer about next week's webinar as well. If you have any further questions, that would be a good time to pop on.

And thank you for coming. And of course reach out at, you know, if you can see that I have my email and my phone number posted so you know, please feel free to reach out. If you have any questions at all. About ilsa. We are anxious to to see lots of applications this year and of course the application is due March the 15th.

So it's coming up pretty quick.

Well, thank you so much ladies, and thank you everybody who was here today. I recording will be sent out to you and definitely be on the lookout for Barbara's email coming out about these upcoming webinars that can even give you some more direct information about programs. So thanks everybody. I'm going to close up the web and are now and and we really appreciate you joining us today. Thank you.

Alright, thank you very much.