Stephanie Markowitz

Over the summer of 2023, I worked as a communications intern for the Community Investment Corporation (CIC), an organization that finances, preserves, and rehabilitates low-income housing in Chicago's most underserved communities.

I entered the job with almost no background knowledge in affordable housing and its related issues. I left with not just a deep appreciation for the often-thankless work of groups like CIC, but also a greater understanding how this problem affects Chicagoans, different approaches to housing solutions, and the many civic organizations and individuals who are working to ensure all Chicagoans have access to safe and high-quality affordable housing. I was also able to go on affecting tours of several South Side neighborhoods that have been hit the hardest by the housing crisis and are therefore frequent CIC clients, some of whom I met and interviewed.

I wrote PR copy, revised language and organization for webpages and social media, and collected data and terminology from CIC's entire history to create a boilerplate language handbook. Like many altruistic organizations, CIC is short-staffed and underfunded, but I feel that I left it better able to streamline its goals and communicate its mission to the public.

I spent the summer of 2022 working as a remote communications intern for the UK-based startup WeAre8. This is an app that aims to redirect social media ad revenue to charitable causes — namely climate change.

Motivated by the company's admirable goals, I refined its bold, youthful, and creative brand aesthetic as I generated engaging multimedia content for all of WeAre8's channels, polishing its online presence and better conveying its goals and accomplishments.

The small scale of the company allowed me to experience working with almost every team, wherever an extra hand was needed. I also spent time manning the digital "help desk," where I learned a great deal about customer service.  To top it all off, the company surprised me by flying me out to its London offices at the end of the summer, which I hardly need to say was an absolutely incredible experience.

One of Medill's most famous offerings is this program, where students live and work in D.C. for the quarter as full-time political journalists on Capitol Hill. I cannot overstate the unprecedented access we were granted as student journalists, with the ability to access the back hallways and offices of Senate and House buildings, chasing down Reps. and Senators alongside seasoned journalists from national publications.

While I already considered myself politically well-versed, I was exposed to several issues and movements that I had never deeply considered before. I attended hearings and conducted interviews on the D.C. statehood movement, covered issues regarding national infrastructure and transportation, and probed members of Congress in the midst of the Kevin McCarthy speaker debacle.

During the same trip to Wisconsin where I wrote this article, I was able to meet Mandela Barnes, former lieutenant governor of Wisconsin and candidate in the 2022 Senate race against longtime conservative Senator Ron Johnson. While Barnes did not win the election, his speeches and platform were representative of a blue wave that is still sweeping across the swing state.

In addition, I attended a Unite the Right rally at a megachurch in Kenosha. I was given an insider's look into the state's most zealous conservative base, mitigating my perspective on the Democratic organizing I had seen thus far.

I also saw former President Obama speak at a Milwaukee public high school. He was a key endorsement for Barnes and delivered a witty and rousing speech that I will remember for a long time.