Sara and the First Lady

Not many people get a chance in their lifetime to intern in the First Lady's office, but one of the College of Agriculture's own agricultural communications majors, Sara Borchik, spent last fall during the election doing just that.

Borchik, who served as a White House intern, took it upon herself to find this internship and once she started the process, things moved quickly. After filling out the application just four days before it was due, the next Thursday she received a phone call. The following Thursday she was offered the internship.

Though Borchik's job in Washington was not related to agriculture, it was an incredible opportunity. Her official workday was from 8:30 a.m. to almost 6 o'clock at night. The last two weeks of her internship she worked the White House Christmas parties and sometimes stayed as late as 9:00 or 10:00 p.m. She explained the interns were constantly getting mail and phone calls they had to answer, including mail from little kids telling the First Lady they were going to vote for her.

"It was worth it!" Borchik says. "We (another intern and I) got to be in the room with President Bush and the First Lady the whole time because we were helping out. I felt special."

On the weekends Borchik spent her free time as a tourist. From taking pictures to looking at monuments, she says it was fun to be a tourist.

While in D.C. Borchik lived in a house with 12 other people, which Borchik says was like a Real World D.C. all the time, with a built-in family. The house was divided into five apartments with eight Democrats, two Republicans and two people from outside the United States.

Borchik says they all left their doors open and hung out together. She explained how, although everyone had different political views, they all still got along.

"It was a very polarized house. We were all trying to get to the same ends, we just had a different means to get there," Borchik says.

Going to Washington, D.C., opened up Borchik's eyes on where she wants to end up in the future.

"Being there for the election was incredible," she says. "I got to be in the Reagan Center, which is where the big party for President Bush went on. I got to see a lot of people and I was in the middle of everything going on. Once I left D.C., I saw the direction I need to go."

Borchik says that any D.C. internship looks good on a resume and she encourages others to go for it. She says no matter what someone wants to be there is opportunity in D.C.

"A Washington, D.C., internship forces you to get out of your comfort zone and to do something different," she says. "Being in our nation's capital there is so much going on. There are so many opportunities as far as internships go because there are so many newsletters and organizations that have their home base in D.C., or at least have a satellite office."

Borchik definitely has a plan for the future. She will graduate next December and then wants to attend graduate school. After that she wants to go back to D.C. and find a job.

"The turnover rate is so high in D.C. There are people who have lived there their whole lives, but mostly it's so transitional. People are there for a few years, they get their foot in and then they go work for a small company somewhere," Borchik says.

Being out of school for a while made it hard to come back, she admits. She misses D.C's fast pace and that there is always something to do there. She says her attitude has changed so much because she has been saying forever that she wanted to do agricultural law. Borchik says law still interests her, but she has such a better grasp on what that means now, what kind of things she needs to do and how to get there.

"I think D.C. is great and I want to get more involved in the actual government side of things. I mean, I do want to lobby for a little while, but I want to feel like I am serving my country," she says.

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