by Chrissy Dill
Staff writer
There is a variety of ways a college student can spend his or her summer, whether taking classes, working one or more jobs or spending the summer traveling. For Southeastern student Tyler Slawson, most of his time this summer was spent at our nation’s capital.
Slawson, a junior English with a writing emphasis and organizational and strategic communication double-major, was engaged in an unpaid internship working directly under Sen. James Inhofe from late May to early July.
Slawson’s initial interest in becoming an intern in the Capitol building initially began when he was touring Washington, D.C. “I had visited D.C. and been toured around the Capitol by interns,” he explained.
Slawson’s first trip to Washington was in 2006, taking a total of four trips total before assuming his responsibilities as an intern. “I decided there would be a lot to learn from an experience like that,” he said. “I thought it would be interesting to see not only the inner-workings of Congress but the inner-workings of a senator’s office.”
According to Slawson, the application process for becoming one of only five interns for Inhofe was in-depth and took some time. He visited the website, Inhofe.senate.gov, to apply. He was required to turn in several letters of recommendation, his resume and answer various essay questions.
Slawson had several responsibilities working at the Capitol building, such as preparing maps for presentations, giveing tours of the Capitol several times a week, answering phone calls, running errands to other offices in the Capitol building and attending meetings.
He was also responsible for compiling lists for legislations. “There were ongoing lists of bills Inhofe was sponsoring or co-sponsoring,” he explained. Slawson was assigned to a group of legislative correspondents or legislative assistants, who conduct research and help brief the senator on issues.
“It is typical for these teams to have lists of about 10 issues,” explained Slawson. “One of my groups gave me a list that had been started and asked me to update it with legislation that the senator was sponsoring and co-sponsoring that were relevant to their list of tasks.”
His guided tours through the Capitol building were particularly rewarding for Slawson. When members of his tour group were from Oklahoma or near his area, he said he could make the tour more personalized for them, pointing out aspects of the building he knew would be especially significant to them.
“Every state has two statues in the State Capitol representing people who are from the state,” explained Slawson. “Oklahoma is represented by Sequoyah and Will Rogers.”
“One of the statues from Nebraska is William Jennings Bryan, whom Bryan County is named after,” continued Slawson. “That was a small fact I like pointing out… Being from Oklahoma and having that common ground seemed to make a good connection with the Oklahoma residents visiting.”
Slawson was able to meet people from all around the world through his experience, as well as gain valuable skills and assets that will help him in his future. “I had to talk to lots of different people about various things,” he said. “It helped my communication skills.”
Because of this prominent social aspect of his internship, Slawson was able to make many new friends. “I made good friends that may be friends with me 20 years down the road,” he said.
“All the other interns were from bigger, more prestigious universities, and here I am from little Southeastern Oklahoma,” laughed Slawson. “I felt special.”
With the time he had when he wasn’t working for Inhofe, Slawson toured the city and soaked up as much as the culture as he possibly could. “I got to experience a lot of cool stuff while I was there,” he said. “I toured every weekend, daylight to sunset,” said Slawson.
One of the main activities Slawson enjoyed was attending various lectures, one of which was given by Laura Bush at the national archives building. “The lectures really helped me,” he said, with topics including social media in today’s political climate, cyber warfare and primetime propaganda.
He was also able to attend a book-signing by bestselling author Ann Coulter and meet John McCain, which he said was the most exciting part of the trip.
“I went to seven art museums in a month,” said Slawson, adding that he had the opportunity to view Katharine Hepburn’s Oscars. “I really want to go back and see more.”
“I call it my adventure because there were so many experiences within the trip,” said Slawson. “It became an exciting adventure.”