Madeira Student Gains Valuable Experience in Minority Whip’s Office on Capitol Hill

Not being from the United States and having minimal political interest, Lais Souza ’25 had an experience during her junior year internship on Capitol Hill to be remembered for a lifetime.

“Being from another country, I did not anticipate what it would be like to be in Congress. You get to see the American political system firsthand and have a front-row seat to how laws are made. It was an incredible experience!” 

Policy Breakfasts Hosted by Representative Clark 

Lais interned with Katherine Clark, the Minority Whip of the United States House of Representatives. One of the opportunities for the Whip is to host policy breakfasts for other representatives from the party. Politicians use this time to discuss strategies and how they would approach certain bills or votes. Lais helped manage these breakfasts in a variety of ways. She helped with event set up and take down and also greeted the politicians who attended. 

“My favorite part of the internship was helping with the Whip breakfasts. It was amazing to see so many other members attend and talk about policy. I was able to greet many of them over the course of my internship so they remembered me and made a point to talk to me. They were so genuine. I even got a compliment from Representative Nancy Pelosi, which was a highlight.” 

Varied Work Provides Wealth of Experience 

In addition to her work at the policy breakfasts, Lais was able to complete interesting work during her 5-week internship. She collated news clips about the congresswoman and helped the press staffer. She collected and sorted through mail and recorded the mail data into a database for the representative to review later. Lais was able to attend high-profile hearings; two examples are the hearings about social media policy and border control. She even got to meet Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.  

Each Madeira student who interns on the Hill submits a presentation at the conclusion of her internship. Lais took advantage of being downtown to study and write in the Library of Congress, a rare experience for a high school student. 

Even though Lais never wanted to pursue a career in politics, she says the experience was one of the best she has had. She was blown away by engaging in the inner workings of government first-hand and was energized by the number of women working on Capitol Hill. “Going into the experience, I expected it to be majority men, but there were so many strong women working, which was inspiring.” 

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