Ms. Maglaque goes to Washington to help Rock the Vote

Jane Maglaque of Sharon was a summer intern at The Lakeville Journal in 2007, and spent the summer of 2008 working as an intern for Rock the Vote, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to registering and encouraging young people to vote.  In addition to working in Connecticut and Washington, D.C., she attended the Democratic National Convention in Denver and she was invited back to help plan events for the Jan. 20 inauguration.

This year I am a freshman at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Mass.  The school has a January term that students can use for everything from internships to non-credit and credit courses to working, traveling or spending time at home.

I decided, that I wanted to spend my time in Washington, D.C., helping Rock the Vote with its plans for the inauguration.

When the deputy director e-mailed me to say I was welcome back to help plan events with her, I was ecstatic. I would have a chance to learn in a different way from most college students. And I would have a chance to witness and be part of history.

Rock the Vote had four events around inauguration, all of which I worked at and helped plan. This was an incredibly exciting time for the country. Beyond electing its first African-American as president, it was exciting to see people so enthused about Barack Obama and his family. Most people had a sign in their window or a pin on their coat. I saw one woman on the Metro with a scarf with matching gloves and hat that said Obama.  

The day of the swearing-in, it took me an hour and a half just to exit the Metro and about three hours to travel 2 miles to the section where I had tickets. The streets were littered, people were sitting on the side of the road and others were walking in the middle of roads that are usually packed with cars. What struck me was the fact that everyone was so excited about politics. While I am used to people becoming overjoyed because of a musical artist or actor, this was a politician.

Some people (not inauguration volunteers) would climb onto a tree or lamp post and from there, shout out to others where a gate or exit was. For someone who stands at 5 feet 4 inches, this was particularly helpful.  

Everyone was extremely nice. Everyone was willing to work together probably because they rightfully thought that that was the best way to get onto the National Mall to see the ceremony.

Beginning a week or so before the event, every day more people came into the city. The Secret Service did everything from security testing in which announcements were made so loudly that everyone standing on the National Mall could hear, to a rehearsal of helicopters that because my apartment is a few blocks from the Capitol building, I could hear loud and clear. The safety in D.C. was intense. The week before inauguration, it was made clear that it would be incredibly difficult to have things shipped into the city because of additional security checks and it was almost impossible to get liquids shipped there for security reasons.

There were anywhere from 1 million to 5 million people who had come into the city for the inauguration. One morning before work, I turned on the television and the topic of the news was housing for the week of the inauguration in D.C. People spent anywhere from $50 a night (to set up a tent in someone’s backyard) to $10,000 a night (for a driver and on-site masseuse).

Finding tickets for events was a huge challenge. Most swearing-in tickets were distributed on a lottery basis through your state’s congressman. When I inquired about tickets for Connecticut, they said that they had 158 tickets available. Luckily, because of Rock the Vote, I was able to get a ticket, something that is now a permanent piece of my scrapbook.

This internship has taken me to places that I would never have dreamed of going, if it was watching famous politicians live who I have read about in The New York Times, being backstage with artists who I have grown up watching on MTV, or attending the swearing-in of the 44th president of the United States of America.

These are things I never would have been able to experience if I had not taken that chance of sending my resume to a program that I was sure I would never be accepted to.

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