Emily Eggenberger spent this past semester interning at MLC. Before she left, I asked her to share some thoughts on why she chose the internship and what she’s learned over the course of the last few months.

On August 27th, 2009, a young fourth grader visited the Michigan State Capitol with her mom for the first time. She took in everything from the intricately painted dome, to the glass floor of the rotunda. She gazed in admiration at the portraits that hung on the walls and the colorful murals around every corner. But the most impactful part of the day, the part of the day that she’d remember in crystal clarity for years to come, was the moment she stepped into the gallery of the Senate Chambers, looked out over the sea of desks and chairs, and proclaimed that she too would work in government one day.

What she didn’t know was that coincidentally, exactly ten years later, on August 27th, 2019, she would get into her car and head to Lansing on her way to her first day interning at a lobbying firm that just so happened to be less than 300ft from that very same Capitol building that had entranced her only a decade ago. If you haven’t figured out by now, the fourth-grade girl was me, and I’m so honored to have spent the last four months working with Michigan Legislative Consultants.

I don’t remember exactly when I decided that lobbying was what I wanted to do when I grew up, but I’ve always believed it to be one of the central aspects of our government. Contrary to popular belief, I knew that lobbyists were not the enemy of the people, but a lifeline for them. Lobbyists are the connection to policy that citizens and businesses rely on, and they exist to serve the public. Lobbyists offer professional expertise, personal connections, and invaluable knowledge that can have a more noticeable impact on legislation, and they are essential to the policy-making process. Lobbying is an involved part of policy, everything in a career that I could ever want and more.

When I accepted my position with MLC, I was ecstatic to have achieved an internship with the firm I had been eyeing since my freshman year of college, but I was also terrified. I worried that the experience would end up being boring, loathsome even, just another endless 9-5 job that I had glamorized in my mind. I also feared the opposite, that it would be too fast paced, that it would be grueling, that I would never be able to keep up with the quick moving world of politics. I worried that my internship would scare me away from my dream career, but I couldn’t have been more wrong.

From the very first day, every aspect of my internship was an opportunity to learn something new, and I was surrounded by more knowledge, expertise, and experience than I sometimes even knew what to do with. I was thankful for every assignment I was given, from the mountains of deliveries, to the tracking of congressional and state level candidates, to the attending and note taking at committee meetings, and the reading of legislation. Each and every task offered valuable exposure to the world I wanted so badly to enter, and I soaked in every bit of it that I could. I learned that even the simplest jobs sometimes left the biggest impressions. The hand delivery of news briefs and flyers to legislative offices maintained MLC’s personal touch, while a legislative luncheon served as an important opportunity for connection between constituents and elected officials. The longer I stayed with MLC, the more I knew that even the most tedious of jobs had a worthy purpose and was an essential part of what helped keep MLC the best in the business. Moreover, each of these opportunities was a chance for me to experience a unique and interesting part of lobbying, and with each experience, I became more and more in love with the profession.

This internship has been rewarding in more ways than one, as I’ve learned important skills, gained invaluable experience in public policy, accomplished personal goals, developed into a business professional, and discovered a love for public service and the field of lobbying. I am so thankful that I was able to take on this internship, and it will forever have an impact on me. I am happy to have gotten my start with Michigan Legislative Consultants, and I cannot wait to continue on the road towards my future, so that someday I can make that awestruck fourth grader proud.

Michigan Legislative Consultants is a bipartisan lobbying firm based in Lansing, Michigan. Our team of lobbyists and procurement specialists provide a wide range of services for some of the most respected companies in America. For more on MLC, visit www.mlcmi.com or connect with us on LinkedIn and Twitter.