CLA Interns walk through Little Tokyo.
When people ask me what I do in my position as an intern for Congresswoman Chu’s office, it can be difficult to explain such responsibilities succinctly. I’ve also found it difficult to explain why this is the case. In terms of what I do in the office, I do what needs to be done. A lot of the time I am receiving constituent phone calls, helping them to the best of my abilities, and connecting them with the appropriate resources and other departments within Congresswoman Chu’s district office. Other responsibilities include seemingly mundane activities such as receiving mail, printing certificates, and entering constituent messages online. Not too hard to explain. But each of these things, in my experience actually doing them, go a bit deeper than they may seem. Collecting the office’s mail isn’t just opening envelopes and putting them in people’s offices. Reading each letter or memo gives me a better idea of what Congresswoman Chu is actively doing while away from her district office, as well as an ever-growing understanding of the types of people who call themselves her constituents. Giving them to managers within the office or entering them into the online constituent messages database grants me the chance to see how different parts of government go about solving problems, something I have already found myself extrapolating to other branches of government that I’ve never seen or experienced before.
On that note, my takeaways from all sorts of interactions (direct or not) with Congresswoman Chu’s constituents are not always pleasing. While equally eye-opening, a lot of the comments I was exposed to in the last two weeks in the office made me realize that there are often people who do not appreciate everything Congresswoman Chu stands for. In the wake of the Supreme Court’s ruling on the use of affirmative action in university admissions, Congresswoman Chu went on live television and voiced her disappointment in the ruling as well as her dedication to aiding institutions of higher education in diversifying their student body. In the hours following her appearance, many constituents called our Pasadena office to voice their displeasure with her stance. Oftentimes language and points of view were expressed that starkly contrasted mine as well as Congresswoman Chu’s, which was a part of this experience I knew to expect. Yet I still found myself feeling disappointed. Being a constituent of Congresswoman Chu’s myself, it was hard to acknowledge that I was a part of the same voter pool as these callers. It was a basic, yet good lesson in the realities of policy work. You are not going to like every phone call you receive nor every constituent you talk to. But at the same time, it makes every piece of constituent casework, good or bad, worthy of your efforts. Each one is an opportunity to impact someone’s life, and whether it’s being engaged and making someone’s day or attempting to change someone’s perspective on issues, every conversation is an opportunity to be a meaningful civil servant. I look forward to engaging in even higher levels to this process, but for now I’m enjoying letting the barebones of policy work wash over me.
The views and opinions expressed in this publication are those of the author and do not reflect the views or positions of CAUSE or the CAUSE network.
Written by Liam Chia, Leadership Academy 2023 Intern.
The CAUSE Leadership Academy (CLA) for students is a nine-week, paid, internship program that prepares college undergraduates to lead and advocate for the Asian Pacific Islander community on their campuses and beyond.