Students seeking to gain experience at the state capitol can apply for the Rio Grande Valley Legislative Internship. Eleven internships are open for the Spring 2019 semester.
The selected candidates will work for the Austin Capitol offices of a Rio Grande Valley legislator. Interns will have to move to Austin if they are selected.
“We have to express our deep appreciation to our legislators because without them, we wouldn’t have these offices for students to go and do their thing,” said Richard Sanchez, UTRGV associate vice president for Governmental and Community Relations. “Our Valley legislators are always excellent hosts to our students.”
Internships will correspond with the 86th Texas Legislative Session, which begins Jan. 8, according to a UTRGV news release. Interns will receive six upper-level political science credit hours.
This is the second legislative session in which UTRGV will send interns to the Capitol. Legacy institution University of Texas-Pan American had a similar program with five to six students.
Texas legislative sessions are held every other year for 140 days. Students are required to stay until the end of the session to aid legislators.
Some of the interns’ duties include conducting research for legislation, monitoring committee hearings and meeting with constituents, according to the UTRGV news release.
Funds for the internships are approved by the Office of the President and selected candidates are awarded an $8,000 stipend to cover their expenses while in Austin.
“Students who are selected for the Austin legislative internships, they gain the kind of experience that a staffer for a legislator would have,” said Ruth Ann Ragland, a political science senior lecturer. “… They do all the various jobs that are available in a very busy Texas Capitol office.”
Candidates should fill an application form that can be found at https://www.utrgv.edu/careercenter/.
The requirements for undergraduate students are a completion of 60 credit hours, 12 of which need to be in political science courses with a 3.0-minimum GPA in these. They are also required to have a 2.5 cumulative GPA. Graduate students must have a 3.0 GPA and be enrolled in the appropriate courses in the academic departments.
All majors are welcome to apply.
“[Students] are interviewed by a committee of people from the Governmental Relations Office,” Ragland said. “… Then we evaluate them, we select 11 students, and then … we assign them to various legislators … to work in Austin, and then they attend an orientation here before they go.”
Students will be required to work 40 hours while taking two online political science courses.
The deadline to apply is Thursday. For more information, contact Ragland at ruth.ragland@utrgv.edu or Sanchez at richard.sanchez@utrgv.edu.
