Week 2-The Big Picture of Being an Intern

As I have been getting settled into my job at Fulkerson Kennedy and Company, I have quickly realized the roles of interns in the set-up of this specific firm. As much as I like the environment and the atmosphere of the office-as well as what the firm actually does, which is raising money and organizing fundraising events, the interns at the office have less passionate gruntwork, which usually consists of sorting through and organizing spreadsheets of potential donors, calling donors about upcoming events, and running errands to drop off paperwork. Knowing that this is the trajectory of the following weeks has left me a tad unfulfilled.

However, another aspect of the internship just started this week, in which interns get to help run the fundraising events in which our clients have smaller lunches or dinners with major donors from different PACs or lobbying groups. This week I went to my first one, in which one of our clients had a dinner event in which different lobbyists and donors who asked him questions about his policies and legislative actions and goals. Hearing people ask him up-front and direct questions about climate change and energy legislation, and seeing him react on the spot with diplomacy and straight-forwardness was extremely fascinating to see. These intimate space allowed me to see what mattered to the senator and what motivates his donors to give to his campaign. It felt almost off-limits, since these events are highly discreet, the address of the events is not even listed on the invitations. Being able to meet the senator and contributing to these types events crystalized the importance and significance of what I have been doing at FK. After this event, I understood the bigger picture of working for a political campaign and understood that the gruntwork of collecting donations and researching donors is necessarily for the campaign and action of not only our clients, but all politicians.  

I had a conversation with one of my bosses about our company and her career. She loves the day-to-day of her job, where she works full time as the campaign finance manager for a client. She loves establishing a relationship with her client and working for someone she sees and believes is doing important work for her office. She does have a conflicted mindset about working in a field, campaign finance, that she and many others believes should be reformed, but playing in the system to fix the system that she believes is more effective that not playing at all. Being here and seeing the work of this company come to fruition, I very much agree.