Interning On the Hill: A Latinx Student’s Experience

Hello KC. Hey Jamil. So something that's been on my mind lately,

is about the importance of internships, right, the importance of getting

on the job experience with an area of study, an area of focus,

that can happen outside the classroom. The importance of learning outside

the classroom. What do you think about that?

Well, the more I'm a teacher actually, and the more I spend time

with folks like you and other students is like, "Wow, I really would

have done college differently if I could." It's like, "Did I ever have

an internship? Did I ever raise my hand in class?

Did I use the resources available to me?"

And no. And so I think the more we can

encourage students to really take advantage of those resources,

the more that they can get value out of their education and build

collective power, right? Yeah, and we talk a lot about student activism

on this podcast. Yes, we do. And a huge way of getting into

activism is getting into politics. Mm hmm. I recall, I believe it was

after my first year, I had an internship in the Mayor's office,

in my local Mayor's Office. I did not know that. I did,

for the summer. Of course you did. I did an unpaid internship.

I did not want to be idle, I wanted to do something,

get my hands wet. Always been interested in politics, always been interested

in local government because that is where decisions happen for your community.

So I took an unpaid internship at my local Mayor's office,

I learnt a lot about how my Mayor office operates.

I was writing proclamations... Proclamations, they had me doing, yeah.

Interesting. Yeah, and I think about, too, I mean there's local government,

like Mayor's office, and then all different levels of government, right?

And I grew up 20 minutes from Congress, right outside of DC,

and to me that felt kind of local.

Congress felt close, living in the Washington DC area. And then when I

moved to New Mexico and lived in Wisconsin, and I heard how people

talked about Washington as this distant place where people did horrible

things or they got nothing done, and they just had these complaints,

like they didn't have any sort of sense of connection

to their federal government, that was really an eye opener for me.

And I'm curious for you as someone born in Connecticut,

born and raised in Connecticut, does Washington DC... Does

the Federal government seem close to you? Does it seem far?

Is it approachable? Well, I've been to DC once, I went when I

was looking at colleges for the first time. Interesting. Yes, I was looking

at universities in DC. And one, I thought the Monument was gorgeous, it

just felt like a very important place. True. I would say the federal

government does feel approachable, but to me specifically, because I've

never been scared to talk to a representative. For sure. I find that

over the years, I've been in many spaces,

like the legislation breakfast we have on campus, where people come

and they talk to us, we talk to them. So I feel like

that's approachable for me, but I can see how for ordinary citizens,

that don't find theirself in political spaces, how that can be unapproachable,

and also not necessarily knowing the differences between levels of government

and where things happened. Right. So when I interned at the Mayor's office,

I'd seen a lot of calls, and a lot of complaints,

and it was always complaints that didn't deal with us directly.

Like that wasn't our job to fix, we had no power to fix

that. Interesting. We had no over certain areas, it was just not our

level of government. And so I think for a lot of people,

ordinary citizens, sometimes the problem may be not knowing which level

to bring a concern to. For this conversation today, we're so excited to

bring back a member of our podcast team who has been in this

distant land of Washington, DC, Andreina Barajas Novoa, who was just an

intern with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, and as a... I guess

this was the first semester of your second year, Andreina, right,

that you spent living in Washington DC and working in Congressman Seth Moulton's

office. So welcome to the show. We cannot wait

to hear about your experiences. Thank you so much for the warm welcome.

And I'm really excited to be back at Southern, working towards southern

social justice initiatives, and then also bringing with me the experience

from being on The Hill. And I really... Both of you...

In talking to you, I'm like, with the confidence it takes

to do the kinds of things that both of you do,

the more we can share your stories and get that kind of,

for lack of a better word, vibe out there to more people,

empower folks, the better. So Andreina, what had you apply for that internship

in the first place? Because seriously, as a... You would have had applied

while you were in your first year of college,

to be like, "Oh yeah, I'll go live in Washington DC.

I'll be an intern in Congress." I mean that really takes

a certain kind of presence and confidence that

I, for one, admire. Well, thank you so much.

I guess what really propelled me to wanna apply to this internship specifically

with or through the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute

was really, back in high school, my interest in wanting to be in

government and interest in government work. I realised that I wanted to

continue going to college. Because I went to a vocational high school,

it wasn't really expected of me to do that but personally,

I saw myself working more with people rather than machines. And I went

to a technical school for HVAC and I quickly realised that was not

for me. But yeah, so it was really the summer of my...

The summer of going into college, so before... Oh wow. The start of my first

semester that I was just googling opportunities to intern in Congress,

specifically opportunities that were fully funded and paid where I didn't

really have to rent an apartment for three or four months.

So this was a full ride pretty much to intern in Congress.

They also provided me with a stipend and transportation to and from DC

so this is really, it's a great program for low income students and

students of colour but because it's the CHCI, they primarily help out Hispanic

and Latino students so that's how I was able to apply.

And yeah, I would say it was because of my interest in government

and I found out about this opportunity by a Google search before the

start of my first year at Southern. So from HVAC technical school,

before even going to college, how can I get to Congress and how

can I have somebody else pay for that?

Yeah. Yeah, and to even... And to go into that too,

I remember distinctively my first year with being a freshman in high school,

because it was a vocational high school, our expectation isn't to go to

college really unless you're in one of the other trades, which mine didn't

really require me to go to college because I'm an HVAC, I can

go work in HVAC right now if I wanted to, but other career paths did. But

I remember one of the teachers telling us that if we wanted to

go to law school, that the school wouldn't be able to give you

that opportunity, you wouldn't be able to do this

while going to this school. And I just remember thinking that,

"You're wrong because I'm gonna choose what I wanna do with my life

and if I wanna go to law school or do something else with

this career path then I'm gonna do it."

And I think the relation that I have with

my high school and the work that I'm aiming to do now is

that I wanna do something labour focused, and being able to do this

past internship and Congress proved to me that I can do that despite

not having a background from... Coming from a private high school or

a really good high school or something like that, I was still able

to do it. So would you walk us through a typical day?

So did... I mean were you living with roommates? How close are you

to Congress? What time are you getting in? I assume that you have

to... DC and obviously Congress are super dressy places, I don't have the

wardrobe to intern at Congress right now myself.

So yeah, can you give us a picture of what your daily life

was like? Yes so, the CHCI, they gave us housing in Silver Springs,

Maryland, which is like a 40 minute commute, I would say,

to the capital. And a typical day for me was... Or more

even a typical week, I would say, on Mondays I would do CHCI programming

and then Tuesday to Friday, I would go into the office.

And for Mondays, I could dress business casual because it was CHCI programming

and then when it came to working in the office, it was mainly

business professional which is... I'm not used to wearing suits every day

but I had to get used to it really quickly

and I would say a lot of the people tend to dress very

well with their name brand suits and everything, their name brand shoes,

the leather backpack but I wasn't like that.

I like where I come from, I thrift my clothes, my suits were

all thrifted, they were either thrifted or my mom's clothes. So I kind

of embraced that when I was in Congress. I didn't really wanna conform

to that over dressy type, and I know a lot of people do

to just try to fit in but yeah, that was

the dress code. And then a typical day,

I started my day off with news clips, which is basically just

looking at different headlines from different newspapers and then

putting that all in a document, sending it off to the congressman and

then after that, it was mainly answering constituent emails,

phone calls from constituents, and then also attending briefings that a

staffer wanted us to attend to. And some of the briefings that I

attended were on immigration, Afghanistan, education, and healthcare. So

those are areas of my interest and I also got to learn a

lot about veteran affairs as well as infrastructure, which are

two things that I'm not 100% focused on here in Connecticut so it was

a learning experience there. And then another big thing that was also a

part of my daily schedule and even sometimes weekly schedule was meeting

with different staffers and networking on The Hill. They call them coffees,

over on The Hill. It's an official term? Yeah. Yeah, it's an official

term. My supervisor and then our supervisors for the CHCI told us all

about the different terms that they use on The Hill and

I would usually just refer to it as Congress but it kind of

just stuck to me to just refer to it as The Hill because

that's what everyone uses. Right, right. I like how you talked about

making your professional dress your own. That's always something I believed,

is professionalism is something you define it to be, and it's pretty radical

to decide to do that in a space

that may not be so approachable so I definitely commend you for that.

Now, working with you over these last couple of semesters, I know you're

big on activism, you always got something to say.

How did that translate into this new role, into this new space?

I feel like the work that I do on campus related...

Well, the activism work that I do both on campus and in the

state of Connecticut they didn't transfer enough to this role,

and I think leading up to this internship, I've had a lot of

hope that somehow myself, my one person, my one being was gonna be

able to change the perspective of the congressman or even just

impact policy in some small, small way but unfortunately, I wasn't able

to do that, and I think it kind of

let me down. And that was moreso towards the start, and then

afterwards I kind of just realised that on... Well, in Congress,

activism doesn't really have a space and when it comes to representation,

I think there should be more activists that become Congresspeople, more

organizers that hold these roles and then just a whole transfer of

power and giving that power to the people, because what I realised when

I was there, is that a lot of these laws that are being

made are from people who are just learning about them through...

I don't know, whether it was attending college or whatever and then not

enough people who actually lived these things. So the policies that they

make don't have a sense of urgency behind them because the people making

the policies never had to go through the things that they're writing about.

So it reminded me a lot about representation and the need to have

more of that in Congress, both the staffers and the elected members.

So there seems to be a gap in representation of elective officials

but also the way we interact with our general public,

With the folks who lives are being challenged or somehow harmed possibly

and not feeling that urgency to react and to help and to

be one with our larger community, is what I'm hearing.

Yeah. Ain't that. I'm curious what... You know you said that one thing

that you were doing was responding to constituent letters or emails and

phone calls, what are the things that were coming up in folks' concerns?

Racism. There wasn't one positive call. I would say the calls that I

would get from constituents were typically racist calls. I never really

had too many positive calls, but when I did, it just made my

day completely. And then when it was emails, emails were typically just

constituents asking us for questions on different bills and then some constituents

asking us to do more in terms of infrastructure related work,

on racial justice, and those were the typical emails, but when it comes

to phone calls, I feel like I'm traumatised because

they were too many racist phone calls that I just was not prepared

for in this role. Interesting. Yeah, well, when you said racism,

at first I was like, "Oh, people are calling in to demand

change and that we do something about racism," you're saying people are

calling in and being racist on the phone. Yeah. And you have to

respond to that. I do. It was really hard because most of the

people that would call would mainly call about immigration which... Oh sure.

Yeah, they would mainly call about immigration, and at first it didn't affect

me too much, but then as it just continued,

it started affecting me a lot more because my parents are immigrants,

the work that I do in Connecticut relates to immigration,

and to just constantly hear that there's people that just don't wanna welcome

individuals and just all these different racist policies that are in our

immigration system and people just not realising it and being okay with

those policies really bothered me. Yeah, they would mainly call about immigration,

and I remember there was this one caller

that tried to say that slavery wasn't as bad

as history makes it out to be and...

Yeah, so a lot of weird phone calls that I

don't typically... Or not phone calls, but just a lot of weird topics

and talking points that I'd never really interacted with before and didn't

have to deal with when I was on campus. Mm. I could see

that especially, it happening over a long period of time, the toll that

would take on a person of colour. Absolutely.

So if you're thinking about other people of colour entering that space,

entering these similar roles and will be having to deal with phone calls

and constituents that are coming from a space of racism, coming from a

space of White supremacy, coming from a space of hatred,

how do you recommend they handle that or navigate that space?

That's a great... That's a great question, Jamil. It really is.

I was very... I made sure that I communicated my feelings towards my

supervisor but where I found the most help was with the other members

of my cohort who also had to deal with these calls so if

there's any student listening to this podcast and

is interested in interning on The Hill sometime, I would say if you're

not... Well, if you're not doing it through a separate program where you

get to meet people from your own cohort, so if it doesn't follow

a cohort model, try to find another person of colour that you can

confide in on The Hill who will be able to relate to your

experiences because I think what really helped me was being able to talk

to my friends about this and then also understanding because they also have

these challenges in their space. Yeah, and that is also true for anyone

who works at any level of government engaging with the public.

So, City Council all the way to the top and I really...

I almost can't even imagine what folks, elected officials, not to mention

all of their staffs but the staff, you're the ones who are

the front line of receiving the public. But man,

the pushback, the racism, the anger, in addition to the positive things,

I'm sure there's some stuff, but elected officials deal with a lot.

Yeah, I would say too, I wouldn't really say that they deal with

a lot of stuff, because if there's one thing I realised from interning on

The Hill was that the members and just like... Well, I guess this is true

for Congress, they just don't really do a lot of the work that

you think that they're doing. I don't know how to explain that,

but I'll try to. Their floor speeches aren't written by themselves they're

written by their staff members. For sure. And pretty much they have people

to tell them what to do, where to go, what to say,

so it's really a group effort, and when it comes to speaking to

constituents, interns are constantly the ones that are like...

And if it's not the intern then, it's the staff assistant.

It's usually... 'cause the hierarchy on The Hill is pretty weird.

It's usually the staff assistants and people on

a lower role, I guess I would say are the ones who are

having to answer those tough calls, but the member... I wish that there

was a member that actually would answer the phone call, so they know

the racist calls that we have to answer to. Right. That reminds me

of my internship because it was very similar where it's like the team.

I was so surprised by that. How much of the actual work is

accomplished by the team versus by your elected official, the speeches they

write, where to stand, what calls, what meetings they were gonna go to,

what they were gonna say at the meeting, how to frame it,

how to photograph them, like all of it is really coming from interns

and many of us unpaid. Yeah, it's... Also I remember learning

all of the famous speeches that you might read

from presidents or whomever, almost none of them... Obama famously, he also

had the speech writers, but those speeches that the president is known for

it, the speech writer is not known for those speeches,

and it really is, of course, one person can't do all the things

that are happening from a collective of people and they're just managing

the office. But it's not unlike owning a business and you have a

whole bunch of employees who do a lot of the work,

and then you're the one who's sort of the face of that

collective effort. Well, one thing I wonder, that's interesting about the

phone call too, because just so many people have not had jobs where

they have to filter any phone calls, but

what do you think is the best way, based on your experience,

if you really wanna get a message across to a congress person,

and this doesn't apply to anyone who has a racist message,

disregard, but if you wanna get through, I've heard

that calling is better than emailing but what is... From your inside perspective,

what would you say is the best way to really

connect? That's a good question. I guess it depends on how much you're trying

to get across, because if it's a lengthy or not a lengthy... If

it's a big issue that requires something more in depth, and

then I would say a written message, so therefore emailing your Representative

or Senator. But when it comes to just getting a direct message across,

so just saying, maybe saying, "I want you to abolishing ICE." So something

like a simple direct message, I would say

that would be good for a phone call and something that I learned,

big pointer to people who do phone things was just to make sure

that you're calling in, leaving your name, email and phone number,

because that's how we were able to log the calls, and there were a

few people... The calls that weren't racist and the calls that actually

called for positive change, I would say they didn't do that,

they would sometimes just hang up... Oh, no. Before I was able to

ask them, and I was like, dang, I'm not able to let the

Congressman know and notify the staffers about an issue.

And I thought that was pretty upsetting, but

I think that's something that people don't really

take into consideration when they're calling in, and then especially if

you call in after hours and you wanna leave a voice mail, leave

your name, email and phone number, and then if you feel comfortable your

address or maybe a zip code so that it could be logged because

that's what a lot of people didn't do, and I guess it's also

the benefit of an email because you're able to just send the message

more directly, something more specific and written out

is a good way to communicate too, but yeah, I guess I would

say phone calls if you want a more direct message.

Now, has your view point changed of how you view Congress,

how you view elect officials, how you view

our democracy in this country? How has that shifted for you?

How has that stayed the same? It changed a lot

Where do I start? So, a lot of the work that I do

here at Connecticut is activism related work, so social justice work on

campus, DEI work on campus, and then immigration work in Connecticut through

Connecticut Students for a Dream. And so when I was in this position,

I've realised that lot of that work sometimes isn't appreciated

in that high level of Congress. So in terms of it changing my

perspective, because Representative Seth Moulton, he was big on the issue

of getting people out of Afghanistan, so when it came to the

Afghan refugee inquiries and SIV applications, he was one of the few offices

that was doing that, so it changed my perspective.

Well, being exposed to that first hand changed my perspective on our immigration

system and how it needs to be improved to better serve refugees and

then also other immigrant populations. But when it came to

the Afghanistan withdrawal and us no longer having people in Afghanistan,

no military personnel to really get people out,

that's when I started realising that if I wasn't in this position as

an intern attending these Afghanistan briefings, then I wouldn't understand

where the government isn't doing enough to help these people get out.

And I guess if I wasn't in this position, I'd probably be

making these phone calls and then asking our representatives to do more

because there's more people that need help and more people that need to

get out. But I just had to learn

that they're just... That hope wasn't there, I don't know how to explain

it, but it just wasn't there, and that was something tough to have

to handle because I definitely would have been on the end of wanting the

government to do more, and then realising that they're just... We don't

have the right military personal to actually get people out, and then the

whole system of getting people out is just so complicated. It just can't

be done. So that was really stressful, having to be on that end, and

receiving these phone calls and telling people that "I'm sorry, but we can't

do anything to get your relatives out or your friend out."

There's just... We just can't do anything. Yeah, I don't know if that

was too much of a lengthy answer, but it definitely changed my perspective

on our immigration system, and it honestly made me feel hopeless in my

position because there wasn't anything that I can do to provide them

a sense of safety and be able to tell them that

"We're gonna be able to help you," except that wasn't true.

That's a lot to unpack there, a sense of powerless.

Not having the power to do what you believe is right.

And you don't have the resources. I could really see how that could

happen. Looking on the other side as a citizen, you think it's so

simple, we think it's always the issue of

people not wanting to help, people not wanting to get involved,

our looked officials not wanting to do x, y, and z.

But, we're never really thinking about what it would take to actually accomplish

that. How complicated things that we talk about being simple may actually

be... That's very true. If you're working to solve these issues.

You tend to see how complex and how hard these systems are to

navigate or how unrealistic it is to do. Right, I have felt the

same thing, any institution I've been a part of, particularly universities,

like the more that I have experienced... The higher up I see

and engage with an institution, I feel that hopelessness because you see

how stuck in certain structures we are and how much truly how much

political and social will needs to happen to shift

public opinion enough or to make things happen enough to change those structures.

And it takes a lot, it takes a lot. And it can feel...

It's weird, the higher up you get, the more... Sometimes you have a

bird's eye view and sometimes that's helpful. But a lot of times it's

like, "Oh, wow, there's a lot that I didn't know back when I

didn't have that perspective." Yeah, like Jamil put it, it made me feel

very powerless, and when I was doing, well, I'm still gonna continue doing

this work, social justice work in the... I work on campus of course, but

I didn't really feel that sense of powerlessness here on campus,

and it came when I was doing my immigration work, I started feeling that

more so in Congress because there's not enough elected officials who want

to fix these systems, challenged them. And I felt powerless because as an

intern, my voice isn't really heard, my opinion isn't really

asked for, so how much of an impact can I really have?

I guess, how it would impact my work...

I don't know, because that's still something I'm trying to answer myself.

But I would say something that I learned from a mentor

that I got through the CHCI, he told me to not over intellectualise things.

That's something I'm gonna take into consideration when

I resume the work I do here, and the work I do as

an activist, both on campus and in Connecticut.

Not over intellectualising issues, and yeah, that's mainly one of my key

takeaways. Something I think about often, and not even just in politics,

with just activism in general. I see when folks step into activism for

the first time, or even when they've been there for a little while,

they tend to hit a wall of frustration

of like, "Oh my God. Why won't this work? Why won't this...

Why can't I fix this thing?" But it's not just this small thing

they're talking about, it's like, "Why can't I solve systematic racism by

myself, overnight? Why can't I fix a 400 year long issue over night,

by myself?", when it's just unrealistic and impossible to expect of yourself.

What I try to always tell people is, even if you're something as

small as an intern, or even large, with a large platform,

you do what is realistic and you try to lean more into collective

action. And I think that's more soothing is trying to think doing things

as a collective versus I have this weight on my shoulder that I

have to solve all the issues of inequities overnight, by myself.

And not being able to accomplish that makes me somehow a failure,

or makes me lose hope in our society, in our systems.

It makes you wanna stop the work all together.

But I do think... Let's kind of switch it up. It's a lot

of sad stuff, maybe not nice stuff. How about positive stuff?

Any good stuff happen? Any nice, happy moments? Any juicy stories? Wait,

is there happiness Congress? Are we smiling in Congress? Is anybody happy

down there? No. Oh, no. Oh, wow. We're doomed everybody. We're doomed. Yeah.

A lot of the staffers just seemed so depressed all the time.

They're stressed, a stressed bunch of people. Yeah. A lot of stress.

And then, not paid enough for the work that they do.

That's some tea. Also, just learning the insider scoop on a few members

who may look good on the outside in terms of their policies,

but are they a good boss? Probably not. I learned about a lot

of different office tea. But in terms of positive things that happened to

me in DC, I would say a lot of the positives happened outside

of the office. Because a lot of the work that I was exposed

to was very stressful and sad because I feel like I couldn't do

enough to help refugees and impact immigration. A lot of the fun stuff

happened outside of work. And something that I got out of this internship

experience was feeling more seen, and feeling more

confident, and also comfortable in these spaces, and learning that I belong

here just as much as anyone else does, and wanting to reclaim the

space that is here for me. And wanting to have a seat at

the table and not only wanting it, but demanding it is something that

I learned in DC. I'm ready to fuck shit up. And something very

beautiful, I would say, that I was exposed while in DC is my

Mexican culture, which I, honestly, didn't expect that. But

in DC, there's so many different museums, so many different

cultural institutes. And because I interned through the Congressional Hispanic

Caucus Institute, I got to be informed about a lot of these different

cultural places. I got to meet a lot of different Hispanic and LatinX leaders,

which was very beautiful. I also got to attend my first Dia De Los Muertos

event, which I had never attended before in my life, despite being Mexican.

I felt a lot more connected to my culture being in DC then

when I'm here in Connecticut. There are huge Latino populations from all

over Central South America. And yes, I know exactly what you're talking

about. The cultural institutes, the art, and so that is fantastic.

And taking ownership of spaces. You may be surrounded by miserable staffers,

but I'll tell you what, that takeaway for you of demanding

a seat at the table, or a space in the hall,

whatever it is, and feeling entitled to that, and comfortable having walked

there is also just a great testament to that internship program too,

as a way to build collective power and foster young leaders.

That's what I'm talking about. I'm curious. What was the experience like

being in community with other Latinos? Because I know often, especially

going to a PWI, different parts of our state, not having large populations

of minorities, being in a space that is full of folks from your

own community that are leaders and doing things very similar to you must

have been amazing. How was that like? It was a beautiful experience just

because I feel like when I was younger, and especially when I was

in high school, I didn't appreciate my Mexican heritage enough, and I kind

of didn't wanna be associated with the Latinx community.

I can't really explain why that was, why that came to be,

but I didn't wanna embrace my Latinx side, my Mexican side and I

kinda just wanted to hide it. Yes, I'm a person of colour, but

leave it at that, you know? But being in a space where

everyone is Latinx, Hispanic, whoever they choose to identify,

that was very nice because we all have different experiences.

Some of my friends that I made from California had different experiences

and a lot more exposure to the Hispanic and Latinx culture,

whereas I feel like I didn't have that growing up.

So being able to share that with them

and just share this community space where we all want some sort of...

Reach some sort of liberation for our community was really nice,

and I just really want that space again.

I think a lot of people can relate to that feeling.

And then the regaining and the rejoining of your culture,

I think a lot of people are going through it right now.

I like we're reflecting on that. What's a message you can give to

a Latino, a Hispanic student listening to this?

Someone that may be like you, that may be thinking about getting involved

like this and maybe just hasn't jumped into it?

So, something that my mom always told me was "Échale ganas", that is,

I guess, one of my messages to a Hispanic or Latin student listening

to this, but then also not being afraid of your heritage and where

you come from, and just looking more into yourself, look deep into who

you are and learn how you can embrace your culture, embrace

your heritage and use that in the work that you're doing and

learn how to apply this to different areas that you're interested in.

Ain't that that just nice. Well Andriena, thank you so much for talking

with us today, we have missed you on the podcast team...

Deeply. And also have just been so proud of you

out there in Congress, and I know... I feel like your experience,

even your learning and your take away from that, I feel like you'll

still be reflecting on that honestly 20 or 30 years from now,

that that will be one of many foundational moments for you.

So thank you for sharing a little bit behind the curtain

of that experience and appreciate that you learned some more gossip that's

not necessarily worthy for the air, because that's the wise thing to do.

But thank you for being here with us and for sharing that experience

and inspiring others. Yes. One day, I have the dream of volunteering

in your campaign when you're running for Congress... Oh, I'll be out there.

That's my dream. I'm gonna go to speeches, I'm gonna have a microphone,

I'm gonna be out there campaigning, so hopefully that's the dream.

Oh, I would like to end on a positive note though,

this is something that I didn't say in my message to Hispanic or

Latinx students. So one of the big things, the major things that I

learned while interning in Congress was how to define success,

and that's something that I'm still reflecting on. Because my definition

of success is different than someone else's definition of success, and when

it came to me extending my internship and staying there for an extra

month, I realised that success for me was just waking up and going

to work and that was success. Just being alive was success,

breathing was success, and not putting too much pressure on myself.

And so I just wanna end on a James Baldwin quote that one

of the CHCI supervisors shared with us at the end of our internship

"I was not born to be what someone

said I was. I was not born to be defined by someone else,

but by myself and myself only." Beautiful. Yeah, absolutely. We're gonna

leave a little tear. Yeah, thank you Andriena. Yes, thank you.

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