Meet Penn Hill Group’s Fall interns, Grace Embi and Katrina Sam. Grace is a Senior at Indiana University majoring in Law and Public Policy and minoring in Creative Writing. Katrina is a Senior at University of California, Irvine (UCI) double majoring in Psychology and Criminology, Law and Society and minoring in Sociology.  Learn a little bit about each of them below!

Grace Embi

Grace

Why did you decide to spend a semester in DC?

I learned about my university’s Washington Leadership Program during my freshman year of college and have been excited to join ever since. While I have learned about the policymaking process at Indiana University, being able to observe all the steps and individuals involved in developing and implementing legislative priorities is something I can only experience in DC. Additionally, as someone who grew up in the Midwest, I was interested in living in the nation’s capital.

What have you learned during this internship?

I have learned about the specific educational policy priorities of different organizations in the educational and workforce sectors. I was also able to witness what goes into passing education legislation through Congress. While I had some teaching and educational volunteering experiences prior to the internship, this position provided me with a window into what the realistic process is in the policymaking space. As a result, I will leave this internship with a greater understanding of how the government does, and does not, function. I also gained professional writing and research experience, including memorandum writing experience.

What interests you most about education?

A high-quality K-12 education and higher education can help students develop lifelong personal and professional skills, but work needs to be done to remove financial and systemic barriers to these opportunities. I have been interested in learning more about the various policy approaches used to address these issues and to contribute to effective solutions. I am also interested in learning about how recent polarizing educational policies, such as student loan forgiveness and school choice initiatives, are addressed outside of political debates.

What are some of your future goals?

I plan to go to law school and continue to explore education policy, labor law, and other areas of interest. I hope to return to DC in the future. In my personal life, I hope to publish a novel somewhere down the line.

Katrina

Why did you decide to spend a semester in DC?

Being from Orange County, California, and going to school in Orange County, it made sense for me to be a commuter. However, UCI’s UCDC program gave me

Katrina Sam

 the opportunity to live the traditional college experience for an academic quarter and gain work experience in a field that I am not directly studying. The time I spent in D.C. opened the door to experiences that I would not have had in California, such as working in Federal policymaking and travelling to neighboring states with new friends!

What have you learned during this internship?

Having worked in an elementary school as an Instructional Aide before this internship, I recognize the privilege of working in education both directly, with students, and indirectly, through Federal policy. It was an incredible experience seeing how much teamwork and strategy goes into the Federal policymaking progress. I have learned so much about myself and I will take these lessons with me wherever my educational and career journey takes me.

What interests you most about education?

As a student who attended Title I schools, I understood the importance of having access to funding and resources to be successful in life. Education has the power to provide immense opportunities for students, but many barriers exist that prevent them from taking advantage of these opportunities. I am interested in seeing how students can benefit from resources in order to achieve their goals, whether that may be higher education or elsewhere.

What are some of your future goals?

In the future I would like to work with kids but am still unsure in which capacity. I would be interested in being a school psychologist or therapist but am open to exploring new opportunities. I would like to stay in California and may want to work in educational policymaking in a different capacity. Whatever I decide to pursue, I am grateful for the experience and opportunity that Penn Hill Group has given me.