Wacky Week! Receiving a Knauss placement in DC.

As mentioned in the previous post, Eric MacMillan and I participated in placement week for the 2012 class of Knauss Marine Policy fellows back in November. It was a hectic but exciting experience and we met tons of great folks associated with the program including past and current fellows. We were so busy that Eric and I only spoke for about 15 minutes the whole time we were in DC!

Being a legislative fellow, the week started Monday with workshops by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) at the Library of Congress. The workshops covered the process of developing legislation, how bills are introduced and voted on, and how the CRS could help us research important topics for our positions. We also had the opportunity to meet with the current class of legislative fellows to learn about their offices and experiences. On Tuesday, each host office gave a presentation to help us better understand the role fellows would have in their office and what we could expect to gain from our experience there. Several of the members of Congress even came and met with us themselves! Positions were available in both the Senate and the House of Representatives, with either member offices or committees within Congress, and varied geographically from Florida to Washington and from Maine to Guam.

On Wednesday the interviews began, and with 14 positions available in 13 offices there were tons of interviews to cram into two days. Some offices also invited fellows back after the initial interview to meet the Congressman or Congresswoman from that office or to attend events with the office staff. By Friday morning I’d been to 22 interview related activities and had the opportunity to chat with a handful of members of Congress! There were many fantastic offices with a lot to offer so making a choice was difficult for almost everyone. There was much discussion at the social event the last night about the impressions everyone had felt from each office.

Friday afternoon the legislative placement process ended with everyone being placed in an office. I was very pleased to receive a placement in the office of Congresswoman Chellie Pingree from the 1^st district of Maine. Future updates are in the works!

Kyle, 2012 Knauss Marine Policy Fellow