Humza Baig
Management information systems senior
Just as I thought the semester couldn’t get any better, March proved me wrong. This month I had multiple opportunities to explore the inner workings and day to day operations of the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department. From going on a ride-along to training with the SWAT team, it’s truly been an awesome experience so far. What makes it even better is that I have the satisfaction of knowing that I have a subtle role in protecting the nation’s capital.
Little did I know, it could apparently still snow in Spring! I had a blast in our recent snowball fight and enjoyed the wintery wonderland that I call home this semester. I also had the opportunity to participate in the historic ‘March For Our Lives’ last weekend that brought together over 500,000 demonstrators here in D.C.! It was truly a breathtaking experience getting to see the first amendment in action up close.
Lastly, I crossed off a few more tourist items from my bucket list. I finally explored Union Market and now I can’t stop going every weekend for lunch. Walking through the Newseum and getting to see an actual part of the Berlin Wall was amazing! Thanks to the generosity of my fellow interns that work on the Hill, I had an exclusive tour of the Capital and even got to stand in Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee’s office!
I honestly can’t believe how fast time is flying. By this time next month, I will be back on campus. I hope to make the best of it and make Bauer proud!
Baig submitted these photos:
Andrew Teoh
Accounting and finance junior
At UH, I serve as Vice Chair of the Student Fees Advisory Committee (SFAC). In this role, I help allocate $22.3 million of student service fees to different organizations and departments across the University. The work is detail-oriented and, if done thoroughly, slightly tedious. However, the opportunity to impact the student experience in such a direct way is humbling.
In March, I did the same thing with the federal government.
Every year, the government goes through the appropriations process, deciding how much funding to provide to different departments, agencies, and programs. Every congressional office submits a letter of requests to each of the 12 appropriations subcommittees. These letters share the Congressmens’ priorities, suggesting what programs should be funded and at what amounts. In a sense, this whole process is similar to that of SFAC; receiving requests, deciding priorities, and approving funding. However, there’s one key difference — instead of working in the millions, we’re working in the billions.
I worked hands-on with this process (lovingly called “approps” on the Hill). I organized letters from departments, recommended priorities, and wrote the final letters for the subcommittees. During approps season, a mania of interns pound through the halls of Congress, bouncing between offices for signatures on letters. Staffers have an eerie, zombie-eyed gaze as they’re cooped in cubicles into the wee hours of the morning, sorting through thousands of funding requests. The task is grueling, but the federal budget that it creates impacts every American. Bauer in D.C. has given me the opportunity to witness the Hill hysteria and to play my own small part in it.
Teoh submitted these photos:
Waleed Vohra
Management information systems junior
The third month of my time in D.C. comes to an end and I am, frankly speaking, utterly surprised. I am surprised at what I, ironically, thought would surprise me at this point in the internship: how fast the time has passed and how much I have grown as a person due to this experience. These are things that any person who spends an interval abroad during their undergraduate career would expectedly attest to.
But, something that has surprisingly surprised me (weird, I know), is how accustomed I have gotten to this experience and life style. For my entire life, up until three months ago, I had been doing essentially the same thing. I went to school, hung out with friends, did homework, and enjoyed my winter and summer breaks.
When I finally sat down to write this blog post (evidently D.C. hasn’t made me any less of a procrastinator) and did some introspection, I felt that I had nothing to write about because nothing “felt” exciting. But that was the most shocking and surprising realization: my mind has normalized D.C. I have a very specific 9-5 schedule, I allot time to study and relax after work, and allotted more time on weekends to explore the city. I feel as if I’m an actor following the script. Consequently, I marvel at the human mind’s ability to adapt to such radical changes in life style. Especially when these changes came after a lifelong of something else.
Ultimately, that’s one of the most interesting things I’ve come to learn from this experience. I have come to not be as afraid to experience change. Your mind has an uncanny way to take care of you, after all, your mind knows you better than anyone else.