INTERNSHIPS

Congressman Ron Kind's Washington, D.C. office is currently accepting applications for internships. Duties include researching policy issues, responding to constituent mail, answering phones, distributing interoffice mail, and performing daily office tasks. Interns will have the opportunity to attend Congressional committee hearings, as well as other events. Candidates must be self-starters and have excellent writing and computer skills.
To apply for an internship, please submit a resume and cover letter.
Send information to:
Congressman Ron Kind
Attn: Jenny Johnson
1406 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
PH: (202) 225 - 5506
FX: (202) 225 - 5739
Opportunities in Senator Feingold's Washington, D.C. Office
On a spring, summer and fall basis, the Washington, D.C. office of Senator Feingold is looking for the following:
Press Intern
This internship requires accurate writing and research skills, the ability to work in a fast-paced environment and an availability to work at least three days a week. Preference will be given to individuals with journalism backgrounds and an interest in political science. The press internship involves handling special media projects, building and maintaining databases, compiling daily news clippings, as well as some copying and errands.
General Interns
Preference will be given to individuals with Political Science backgrounds. Duties will include administrative and legislative tasks. Administrative tasks include such things as answering phones, opening and sorting constituent mail, making copies, and some data entry. Legislative tasks include such things as researching legislation and attending hearings.
Applicants for either of these internships should be of at least sophomore standing, and able to work a minimum of 15 to 20 hours a week. The internships are available on a volunteer-basis only. Preference will be given to candidates with a Wisconsin background. Due to recent difficulties with the delivery of the mail to Washington, D.C. please fax cover letters and resume to:
Senator Russ Feingold
Attn: Intern Coordinator
fax (202) 224-2725
Opportunities in Senator Feingold's State Offices
General internships are also available during the fall, spring, and summer in two of the four state offices in Wisconsin. Interested students should contact:
Senator Russ Feingold
Attn: Mary Palmer
1600 Aspen Commons, Room 100
Middleton, WI 53562
(608) 828-1200
Senator Russ Feingold
Attn: Cecilia Smith-Robertson
517 E. Wisconsin Ave., Room 408
Milwaukee, WI 53202
(414) 276-7282
I am pleased to offer internships to college students throughout the year in my Washington, DC office. Summer internships are full-time positions of six week's durations. Two six-week intern sessions are administered each summer. During the school year, internships are coordinated around students' academic schedules. Interns can expect to do a combination of clerical, administrative, legislative, and press work. I believe very strongly that internships should be a positive experience for both the office and the intern. Interns who work for academic credit can expect to work a minimum of 20 hours per week, while interns who are not working for credit may have more flexible schedules.
If you're interested in a Washington internship, the application for an internship position consists of a letter of interest, and a current resume. The deadlines for applications are: July 15 for fall semester internships, November 15 for spring semester internships, and March 15 for summer internships.
There are a great number of resources that can help students find housing while they intern in my Washington office -- click here to see a list of newspaper classifieds, university housing and rental services. Applications may be mailed to the address below:
Senator Herb Kohl
Attn: Sonia Acosta
330 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
For further information, please contact Sonia Acosta, Intern Coordinator in my Washington Office at (202) 224-5653.

Both the Milwaukee and the Madison offices offer semester-long internship programs in the fall, spring and summer. These are rewarding experiences for students who would like to experience first hand the workings of a government office.
Interns are an important part of the office structure, and they are responsible for a variety of essential tasks. Internship applicants must have strong written and verbal communication skills. In addition, applicants must have a strong work ethic, an understanding of commitment, and the ability to work independently on complex tasks.
The Milwaukee and Madison deadline for summer internships will be April 1, 2005.
The internship programs are competitive and it is recommended that prospective interns contact the appropriate state Senate office as early in the semester prior to their internship as possible. If you are interested in doing an internship in Milwaukee, please call, or send your cover letter, a writing sample and resume to the attention of Katie Topinka, in my Milwaukee office listed below. If you are interested in an internship with the Madison office, please contact Joylynn Fosdal to request an application.
Senator Herb KohlAttn. Katie Topinka310 W. Wisconsin Ave., Suite 950Milwaukee, WI 53203Ph: (414) 297-4451Fax: (414) 297-4455 Senator Herb KohlAttn. Joylynn Fosdal14 W. Mifflin St., Suite 207Madison, WI 53703Ph: (608) 264-5338Fax: (608) 264-5473
For information regarding an internship in the Appleton, Eau Claire, or La Crosse offices please contact that office directly.

Resume

Evan Mowry
Present Address: Address After May 15, 2005:
Box 248, University of Minnesota: Morris S8821 County Line Rd.
600 East 4th St. Mondovi, WI 54755
Morris, MN 56267 715.875.4206
320.589.6641 Fuzman666@aol.com
Mowry017@umn.edu

Objective: To develop my working knowledge of politics and society through an internship in which I can explore my place in the world.

University of Minnesota: Morris
Major: Political Science-International Relations/Peace Studies
Area of Concentration: Journalism
GPA (as of 2/4/05): 2.445/4.000

Relevant Experience:
Conservation Volunteer:
Womble Trail: Ouachita National Forest, Arkansas
+ Cleared trail cross-country.
+ Repaired eroding trail to preserve National Forest land.
+ Marked for removal/Removed trail hazards (tree limbs, dead trees, poison ivy, naturally occurring deadfalls, etc)

Social Work Experience:
Someplace Safe Volunteer
Someplace Safe: Morris, Minnesota

Other Experience:
Member, President GLASS (Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Support):
Memorial High School: Eau Claire, WI
+ Planned school-wide Day of Silence
+ Arranged discussion panel during Discrimination Awareness Week

Member, Memorial Men’s Swimming and Diving Team:
Memorial High School: Eau Claire, WI
+ 3 yrs. Varsity Swimming

Member, Memorial Amnesty International:
Memorial High School: Eau Claire, WI
+ Wrote letters to diplomats/US politicians encouraging prosecution for human rights abuses.
+ Arranged Peace and Freedom from Oppression Concert
+ Arranged Peace Rally

Member, Memorial Eco Club (Ecological Preservation and Awareness Club):
Memorial High School: Eau Claire, WI
+ Arranged and staffed school wide recycling program

Sociology Reflection Essay #1

Social Change: Altering the Conditions Under Which We Live
Evan Mowry

Probably the most important question one can ask when considering Sociology is whether or not people have the ability to change their current position in societal strata. This isn’t just a question encountered by sociologists, however. All members of society are eternally, if subconsciously, attempting to improve their lot in life. Many of the individual problems encountered in psychology owe their cause to a struggle with the forces affecting society, and confusion in separating what can be from what is. Simply put, determining whether or not people actually have any control over their lives is an important issue. No one answer by one person will answer this question for all, but a study of what effects society has on the individual and societal institutions can expand one’s view of the forces acting on them, and help to develop the individual sense of place that is necessary to understand life lived with others.
When speaking of society, it is only fair to use the only society I have ever really known, and the one that is most applicable to the class: that of America. If we are to assume that human existence is, first of all, existential, and not largely a result of random factors that exert an overwhelming control over our lives, then America is a place of many different entities that, less than sinisterly, attempt to exert strong controls over the individual.
From the moment we begin to understand concepts, and even before, American children are indoctrinated into society. This is probably not sinister in nature, and is perpetrated the world over, but it does raise questions as to the nature of America. In a country where liberty from others for others is held as gospel, the shaping undergone by the young by their parents directly contradicts this. Adolescence is likely the most stormy era of someone’s life not exclusively because of sexual tension and new, oddly placed body hair, but because some things about one’s parents’ view of reality and what one sees existing do not, and indeed hardly ever, truly jibe.
The central tenet of the concept of America is freedom, which naturally manifests itself in an attempt at Capitalism. Capitalism would, ideally, only result in the best idea, product, or service being applied to each job. However, it has developed into a system in which the most appealing idea, product or service is instead harnessed, with no self-imposed truth existing. Because it is in the suppliers’ best interests to appeal to you, honesty is frequently left by the wayside. In a society that encourages manipulation, it can naturally be difficult to grasp the true nature of things, and one’s own place in them.
While a significant influence is exerted over a person during their childhood by their parents, perhaps an even greater force pressing upon them is the advertising industry. For example, the average child sees 10 advertisements for unhealthy foods on television for every day of their childhood. If a parent were to “pitch” a healthy food, perhaps using a celebrity endorser, as was suggested in the film Super Size Me, at dinnertime every day for their entire childhood, that childhood would see ten times as many professional, “pure bred” suggestions for unhealthy living than their parents can make for healthy living. This is a testament to the influence people give to others who might not have their best interests in mind.
Religion, while an extension of parental shaping, is another distinct force that enjoys a great deal of influence in American society. I do not mean religion in the sense of an abstract, sinister power, warping the naïve minds of the gullible, but instead merely the importance individuals place on a community that only indirectly draws their beliefs from actual society. Speaking from a hopefully objective sociological standpoint, it is risky for a demographic to draw its mores from any defunct, or only partially relevant, source. For example, the bible; not only is it convoluted enough that the majority of Christianity cannot accept each others’ beliefs about it as their own, but it was written, to a certain extent, to provide an answer to specific societal problems many, many years ago. Answers, if there really are any for society, from so long ago can potentially cause more problems then they solve when practiced.
Again, though, it is not the entity of “Religion”. Karl Marx, when he disdainfully said “Religion is the opiate of the masses” did not mean, metaphorically, that Religion was wondering around forcing people to get high on it, but instead that people willingly placed what he viewed as an absurd amount of importance on something that did little to solve problems, and in some circumstances perpetuated them.
In his book Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson puts forth the possibility that societal ideas behave similarly to, and sometimes are a function of the behavior of, viruses. Small genetic changes can have huge impacts on the manner in which thought is produced, and that the process of evolution amplified this process. If you want to view this fantastical thesis in the most metaphorical terms, then isn’t too difficult to imagine that children are born “pure”; a blank slate, and that their parents “infect” them with ideas, as do societal institutions such as their government, religion, the functions of the economic system in whichever country they live in, and all the myriad of individual interactions that hopelessly tangle their influence in, and are influenced by, the others. These ideas then multiply in the cell that is the child, and are released when that child multiplies, and the cycle continues.
What effects these forces have on individual freedoms however, are another set of questions entirely, and whether or not they retain the freedom to change society is another still. It is tempting to say that individuals can make monumental impacts in the structure of society, but really, they never do. Society might change because of one person’s actions, but they aren’t really changing Society (with a capital S), but affecting the many building blocks of its construction. So, the important question to ask is not whether people can change Society or not, but whether people can make an impact on the lives and minds of their fellow man.
Because we are assuming that some free will remains, even in this sea of conflicting, overpowering sensations, it must be true that people are, essentially, free. One can recite moral platitudes about true freedom being a Tabula Rossa, and no such blank slate existing in America, but in reality Society exists. Society affects people, and by that I mean to say that people and the effects of the effects of their actions affect people, everywhere, not just America, and to define “true freedom” as both a worthy goal and a possibility is both nihilistic and naïve. Freedom, really, is the ability to work towards individual happiness, which is definitely present in America.
As for changing society, I believe that everything we do changes it, it is only a matter of understanding what we want it to look like to determine our actions. Too often people blame “society”, or attempt to make large, immediate, sweeping changes. Groundbreaking court cases and protests in front of the White House and their ilk certainly have their place in shaping what society “thinks”, but more effective is the slow, plodding living out of your ideals and understanding them; more effective still is a combination of both combined with interaction with others. This sounds trite, but “living a good life” is the key to social change. Throughout history people have not respected the reactionaries, the radicals and the revolutionaries for very long if they were not (or at least perceived to be) “good people”. Living through example is the least sweeping, but most permanent method of social change there is, and it is one that is certainly being left by the wayside in American life. Even in my own life, I find myself contradicting my beliefs through my actions…that to a certain extent is healthy; part of the learning process; even a necessary part of growing up. However, I see it too often ignored or ridiculed by others, and not taught to children.
Do people have the ability to think for themselves, and to do what they want in a society? Yes. There are certainly obstacles to the ability to ascertain what they want, but they are not insurmountable, and they will always remain in some shape or form. People eternally retain the ability to change each other and through it the ability to shape society. Of the utmost importance is that people retain the freedom to question the nature of these obstacles and their role in society. Only through the constant application of democratic principles in daily life can people strive for lasting happiness.

RA application

RA Application Questions
Evan Mowry
Box 248
Mowry017@mrs.umn.edu
320.589.6641

1: My resident advisor this last year, Mike Rhodes, was fabulous at getting the floor talking in small groups. He was the link between the kids who were nerds in high school and the kids who were jocks, and we have a really wonderful dynamic on our floor because of it.
To be honest, that sort of positive meddling is what attracted me at first. I like being the one who can talk to everyone, and generally that’s lost within the first few weeks for students while the RAs retain that openness. After a while of getting to know each other Mike suggested that I consider applying for the position next year, which decided it.

2: I’ve been involved in DI (Destination Imagination, previously known as Odyssey of the Mind), which is a creative problem-solving challenge program. I was on the Eau Claire Memorial High School Men’s Swimming and Diving Team for my four years there, three of which were Varsity. I was involved in Forensics my senior year, and I’ve remained involved in Youth Group, both with my home church and at the district level on the Youth Adult Committee, since middle school.
The summer before senior year I volunteered with the Student Conservation Association and spent a month doing trail maintenance in Ouchita State Park in Arkansas. I was president of the Memorial Gay/Straight Alliance my Senior year, and was involved in Eco (local recycling and ecological awareness), Amnesty International, and Art Club throughout high school.
For two years during the summer I’ve worked at the Gemini Drive-In movie theater in my hometown. In addition, last summer I was hired as a lifeguard.

3: The single most important, long-term experience I’ve had that has determined how I think and act was growing up in a Unitarian Universalist congregation. An educational, democratic environment that treated me, and my ideas, with respect while preaching tolerance, understanding, empathy and goodwill towards all have unquestionably been the greatest influence on how I live my life.
The single most influential single moment is perhaps impossible to pinpoint, but I’ll say my experience with the Ouichita Womble Trail Crew. Up until that point in my life, there had been pressure to perform to meet others’ standards, and on the trail we set the standards and pushed ourselves and our crewmates to meet them, without arbitrary, parental consequences. For the first time I was with a group of people, doing simple but essential work for a good cause that we all believed in, with nothing to lose but self-respect and nothing to gain but the respect of others. It was the most pure work environment I’ve ever been in, and it will always remind me to structure my life in a way that applies as much pressure I can bear as long as that pressure is for a reason that I can see, and to not become stressed when I can’t see the reason.

4: Community Building promises to be the most challenging of the five areas. Students, especially those fresh out of high school, seem loathe to get to know each other or participate in activities on anyone’s terms but their own. It’ll be difficult to trick them into thinking they want to do what you want them to do.
I honestly don’t see the other areas as being problematic. If I had to pick, I’d say knowing when to refer a resident to an outside source for personal problems, and completing administrative tasks. The former because it’s tricky to know when to admit that someone is beyond your help in some cases, and the latter because room condition reports sound really tedious.

5: My parents are both social workers, and Eau Claire has a large immigrant Hmong population. Up until High School, there was no real reason or incentive to hang out with Hmong students at school; white kids and Hmong generally hung out with white kids and Hmong, respectively. So, at a time when I was unfamiliar with and uncomfortable around Hmong, my parents were getting to know whole family clans, being invited to weddings, and even learning the language.
My senior year of high school my parents were invited to the wedding of a close Hmong friend of theirs, and I had to go. So, I had to act like you would at a normal wedding, but without breaking any customs (I had no idea what they were) and socializing with a group of people who essentially spoke no English.
It turned out to be quite pleasant, actually. There was no real difference between this and any other wedding, although this was perhaps more dignified a reception than most American ones are. I came out of it slightly amazed that Hmong traditions so closely mirrored our own despite vast cultural and societal differences.
Already I’ve had to remind myself that people aren’t as different as they appear (or are more different than they appear) when getting to know people here at Morris. I feel that this is an important realization to come to before becoming an RA, and I’m glad I feel ready to help form connections in a group of diverse students.

6: I am a very jovial, easy-going person but I do not take chances when it comes to other peoples’ safety. I get along well with everyone, even people I really dislike, and am discreet with social affairs. I am responsible, and fulfill duties on time and well. I am easy to talk to and consider myself level headed and a giver of good advice. I am CPR certified, and I am good under stress. I feel that these qualities are what make a good RA.