As an International Political Economy and Diplomacy major, Gabriella Kirkley, a senior, felt that she would like to come to understand the U.S. government. She shared with us her reflections on her experience:
Every morning the office staff collected articles of international, federal, state and local concern from newspapers to give media coverage of issues and opinions of the people to the Congressman. The compilation included letters to the editor about Congressman Shays and his policies; it was one method to amass public opinion and hear the
voice of constituents.
During the day, my job was basically to answer telephone calls from constituents of the 4th district of Connecticut concerning issues they have with district agencies, hospitals, health care, social security, education, etc. The lack of availability of flu vaccines, traffic on I-95, and Chris Shays’ involvement with Iraq were frequent topics of
concern. Constituents call to get information on general issues or specifically to ask about how Chris Shays will vote on a topic, or to suggest how he should vote. Many call to support him during the election campaign. Questions people come up with range from the bizarre to the innocuous to the loaded question. One woman called to ask if we could get the Federal Post Office to issue a Thanksgiving stamp that had been discontinued. Another called to find out the total annual consumption of car fuel in America. Many called to tell him to bring our troops home from Iraq.
I had no idea people were so involved with the federal government; I didn’t know people would call up the congressman and voice their opinions to such an extent. Constituents could even schedule personal interviews with the congressman, who, by the way, is constantly busy.
His daily schedule sometimes starts at 8:30am and runs through to 10pm, including all sorts of public events from religious services to college functions to charity fundraisers, etc. It was good for me to realize how close the federal government is. Physically, in our case, the Congressman’s office is 8 minutes down the road from UB. But humanistically speaking, I could see that the people who work for government offices were “regular Joes,” approachable and professional at the same time, even the Congressman. Once, at an intern lunch that he attended, we ate Domino’s “Garbage” Pizza (with everything on it).
One of the interns proceeded to pick off his olives, and the Congressman was obliged to reach over and take the leftovers from the intern’s plate, advising that the intern should have chosen a piece of cheese pizza if he wasn’t going to eat all the good garbage on the
piece he took. He was very personable actually. I used to feel like “The Government” was so far away, down in Washington, but this internship really brought government down-to-earth for me. I’d like to get more involved with voting and deciding who to elect. It’s not too hard to change things, and studying the platforms of different candidates is the minimum for a US citizen. Now I know that getting involved is also just a phone call away.
University of Bridgeport
Sunday, July 13, 2025