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11.08
My Summer
as a WISE Guy
By Sarah
Rovito
I went to Constituent Coffee
last August on Capitol Hill. This wasn’t the
first time I had attended the soiree sponsored
by my Senator — this was my final week in
Washington, and I had wanted to mingle with
staffers and visitors alike one last time. After
chatting with a college acquaintance, I looked
at my watch and knew that I could not linger any
longer. On my way out, I said goodbye to the
Senator and mentioned that I was on my way to
the Rayburn House Office Building to give a
presentation. “You, giving a briefing in the
Rayburn Building?” was accompanied by an
astonished look.
On the other side of the
Capitol, ten of my peers prepared to present
well-crafted PowerPoint briefs in the House
Committee on Science and Technology's hearing
room. We had labored long and hard over the
content, reading, researching and interviewing
sources all over the D.C. metro area. The big
day had arrived, and we were ready to share our
findings on topics at the intersection of
engineering and public policy with family,
friends and engineering society representatives.
What must have been an odd sight
for Congressional regulars was a special
occasion for the eleven interns of the
Washington Internships for Students of
Engineering (WISE) program. Not only did we get
to sit in the plush, leather thrones usually
occupied by committee members during hearings
and bill mark-ups, but we were able to celebrate
the culmination of nine weeks of work and
camaraderie. We were the WISE Guys.
The eleven WISE Guys descended
upon Washington from all over the country. We
had our aptitude for engineering and interest in
public policy in common. Strangers when we
arrived in D.C., we became an inseparable bunch
many late-night excursions, road trips and
adventures later. Of course, we were also united
in our requirement to produce a research paper
by the end of the summer. We learned so much,
and many of us remain involved with our
respective engineering societies or areas of
research.
Couch-surfing is common among
our close-knit group, as almost all of us remain
in touch more than a year later. The internship
program touched us all in different ways, and
led us to different places — law school, grad
school, full-time employment, even Uganda.
Regardless, being a WISE Guy (albeit for only a
summer) was an exceptional experience. If you
have finished your junior or senior year of
engineering school, want to glimpse engineering
in action outside of a cubicle, and are curious
about politics and policy, I strongly urge you
to apply.
More information on the
Washington Internships for Students of
Engineering can be found at
www.wise-intern.org. Applicants must be
citizens or legal permanent residents of the
United States of America, and members of one of
seven sponsoring engineering societies.
Sarah Rovito spent the summer
of 2007 in Washington, D.C., as one of three
IEEE-sponsored WISE interns. She currently works
as an associate systems engineer at Systems
Planning and Analysis in Alexandria, Virginia.
She holds a bachelor’s degree in systems and
control engineering from Case Western Reserve
University in Cleveland, Ohio, and is pursuing a
master’s degree in systems engineering at The
George Washington University in Washington, D.C.
She is involved with the IEEE Northern Virginia
and Washington Sections, as well as the
Baltimore/Washington Chapter of the Case Alumni
Association. She swims on the Arlington Masters
Team and continues to be passionate about
politics in her spare time.
Comments may
be submitted to todaysengineer@ieee.org.
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