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UH, TSU students bound for D.C. internships

By Bridget Brown
The Daily Cougar

Four UH students probably did not get much sleep last night. At 9 a.m. today they boarded a plane destined for Capitol Hill, where they will spend three months working directly under Washington, D.C., bigwigs in the Mickey Leland Congressional Internship Program.

The program, which was started by Congressman Mickey Leland and is now in its 23rd year, will supply six UH and Texas Southern University students with living expenses in Washington while they spend a semester learning the political ropes from members of Congress.

"This is one of a very few programs that is so well-supported. It gives students that may not have the funds to go to Washington the same advantage as people that do," said Renée Cross, associate director of UH's Center for Public Policy, at a reception honoring the interns Wednesday.

Cross, a UH alumna who once interned on Capitol Hill, said it is beneficial for UH to have people in offices in Washington.

"Some of the best and brightest of TSU and UH will be represented at our nation's capital," Cross said. "A lot of the interns are asked to stay on after the semester, and many go straight to law school."

UH political science post-baccalaureate Amit Patel said the internship opportunity has been on his mind since he applied last spring.

"I probably won't be able to sleep tonight," Patel said. "I'll have to stay up and watch TV instead."

Anjanea Miles, who graduated from UH with a political science degree in December, said she's never traveled north.

"I think I'm more afraid of the cold than I am of working full time," Miles said. "I just want to be there to work around these people, because I know they have so much to teach me. I want to feed off of them, and hopefully I can help out the community as much as I can when I get back."

TSU senior Neinka Bowden, UH political science post-baccalaureate Grace Lee, TSU political science junior Stephen Payne and UH political science senior Farhana Qureshi are the other participants in this year's program.
 

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