The Move

Settling In (DC --> Florida)

As I mentioned in my past post, I was surprised to hear that I got the position of interning at the Russell Senate Building for Marco Rubio. It just was not an opportunity I thought would be smart to pass up. I am not working on his campaign, as that field of work has zero appeal to me, but rather in his DC office completing similar duties that I was responsible for at Yoho's office, I would imagine at least. On Tuesday, September 27th I boarded my one way flight to the big house where I will give a shot at working on the Hill for a few months before I return to Florida where I will complete my undergrad. Within the few days I have been here, I have already settled in my new home with three other lovely girls in Cathedral Heights, somewhat figured out the metro and bus system (still have a long way to go though), went to The Greeks exhibit at the National Geographic Museum, stumbled upon a political protest (an Ethiopian minor group was protesting outside of the World Bank), signed my life away to a 2 month LSAT TestMasters course, and did a lot of walking. As a Florida girl, born and raised, getting accustomed to this great city is not going to be the easiest thing, although I did board the right bus this morning so that's a good start! I cannot wait to learn from the city where most of the world's decisions are made and explore all the Smithsonian's and all the great food. I will begin work on Monday, October 3rd, where I will work my very first 9-5 / 5 days a week / full time / job. I will continue posting on this blog weekly so enjoy, or not. 

(Ethiopian Minor Group Protest 9/29)

Congressman Ted Yoho (R-FL-03)

Thursday, September 1st, 2016, I began my first day as a Congressional Intern for Ted Yoho. However, my main goal is to attend law school and serve in the judicial system, I haven't really considered working in the legislator until now. I have had past experience working at my aunt's real estate law firm and although that was a bit more dry than other branches of law, I acquired a set of skills that still reside within me today and can be applied in several other fields of my life. But, I am paying for 4 years of undergrad at the University of Florida to study Political Science. So I guess working for the government is appropriate. Nevertheless, I joined Team Yoho to work in his district office, working part time 3 days a week and what a surprise...

Summing up the one month I was there (I was offered a position to intern for Sen. Marco Rubio in his DC office so I had to cut my time with Yoho short but I will be back in the future) aside from the daily duties of dealing with constituents, logging opinions in IQ, keeping up with Ted's tracker by reading the daily paper, and generally assisting the residents in District 3, I was shocked to find that a majority of the cases we dealt with was regarding the VA. Veteran work is important it was just something I could not have told you I would be spending a lot of time on. But of course, you can imagine that I have heard it all from complaints to thank you's to strange requests and to political rants. Obviously what we discuss with our constituents is disclosed but from a general voice, aside from issues with the VA, constituents of district 3 voiced their opinions about the TPP trade agreement, funding towards Zika, the DEA trying to ban Kratom, the damage done from the tropical storm, Yoho sending Cuban's back when he was fishing with his son in the Keys, and anything else you would imagine a citizen would be calling their local government about. 

Although I only logged around 50 hours working in Ted's office, I have learned a lot and I cannot wait to apply my skills learned there to Sen. Rubio's office here in DC. It was an honor to serve Florida's 3rd District and work with Ted, he is such a kind soul. Great guy 10/10. I mean just look at that smile!

Go Team Yoho!

Jessica.Basta@mail.house.gov

Yoho.House.Gov

  (photo source: wikipedia.org)