I worked for Congressman Donald Payne of New Jersey my junior year at Madeira. And when I say 'worked,' I mean it! I not only had to do typical page tasks like delivering correspondence between offices or getting an afternoon snack from the cafeteria for the office secretary, I actually opened office mail, responded to constituent letters and represented the office at hearings. I credit that office with helping me build my writing, management, and interpersonal skills.  

Years later, after attending Sarah Lawrence College in New York and living in New York City for a few years, I bought a house and settled in Newark, NJ -- Congressman Payne's district. I'll never forget in the first few months of living here, being in the post office and running into him. I reintroduced myself and told him just how impactful working for him during Co-Curriculum had been. He smiled, called me by name (12 years later!) and told me that he hadn't had a more dedicated intern since. Congressman Payne would become a client of my digital marketing and tech agency until his death in 2012. 

I've recently become an Entrepreneur In Residence at the New Jersey Institute of Technology's (NJIT) Economic Development Center. With that position has come an opportunity to host some smart and very talented interns. I have made sure that their time with me is as actionable and hands on as my time with Congressman Payne, with hopes to affect their lives as he has mine.

"The Co-Curriculum was one of the best things about my Madeira education. I am not an academic, but put me in the real world of work and I thrive. Upon receiving the two different report cards, my Dad remarked, 'It's clear you love work and are good at it; just try to get through school.' Get through school I did, but it was my sophomore and junior year placements where I thrived. Sophomore year I was a 'candy striper' at Washington Hospital Center; I worked in the terminally ill ward in the morning and helped in registration in the afternoon. Working with those at the end of their lives was powerful and poignant. Helping those coming into registration highlighted my skills and taught me a lot. I'll always remember my supervisor Margaret Stuckey's patient tutelage. The most memorable thing about being on Capitol Hill junior year was the opportunity to be in the place where decisions are made. Democracy and the federal government became real in that year. I appreciate Madeira for providing those hands-on opportunities for a hands-on learner like me. I learned a ton and gained tremendous confidence from those experiences."

My Co-Curriculum volunteer experience sparked a surprising lifetime interest for me. I always thought I would go into medicine, as my father was an M.D., but after a year volunteering at Columbia Hospital for Women I knew that medicine was not the path for me. My junior year would ignite an interest in Afghanistan and Central Asia which has guided my personal and professional life since. I was not excited to begin my internship on Capitol Hill that hot September day in 1987. I was not really interested in U.S. politics, or the long trek back and forth to the office every Wednesday. However, the year held interesting international developments which would influence the course of my life. The U.S.S.R. had invaded Afghanistan in 1979 and the conflict was still raging that fall. The U.S. was covertly involved in funding the Afghan resistance fighters (the Mujahedeen). Decision to fund and the details were being made right there on Capitol Hill! After my job of opening the mail was over, I was often sent to pick up the latest news reports on the conflict in Afghanistan, or to fetch a special report the Congressman had ordered. I tried to read whatever I could on the long trips down the corridors of the congressional building, sometimes stopping to read in the hall, and I read any reports I was allowed to once the Congressman was finished with them. Although perhaps I sometimes slacked on my office duties when I was deeply involved in reading the Congressman’s reports, I received a thorough education on the issues of Central Asia by reading them.

While volunteering on the Hill, I was also preparing for the Madeira Russian language and history tour of the U.S.S.R., which was to include Uzbekistan; a daring trip for a high school student, particularly at that time. When we flew into Bukhara the following spring, I was well versed in the conflict raging just south over the border in Afghanistan. The Uzbek landscape was stark and dry. The Mosques were a vision of beautiful teal and cerulean domes set against a brilliant azure sky. The market was exciting, the people friendly, and the hot, circular bread was outstanding. After college, where I studied International Relations, my interest and in-depth knowledge of Afghanistan surprised a kind, young man I met who had left Afghanistan as a refugee in 1980, and we ended up marrying. I now have a son, Rafi, who is well-versed in Afghan history, politics, and language and who hopes for peace in the region so he can visit his father’s homeland one day.

Sadly, 30 years after I secretly read those reports, there is still armed conflict in Afghanistan. I completed law school and an LL.M. (master’s in Environmental Law) and now spend my days researching and writing about conflict/post-conflict environmental issues in Afghanistan. The environment has been terribly degraded by decades of armed conflict, but there are a few bright spots where restoration has begun. My experience on Capitol Hill was life-changing but not in a way I could have ever predicted at 16! A hearty thank you to the Co-Curriculum program and Madeira; I hope to one day send a picture to the alumnae magazine of myself planting a tree in Kabul!

Sophomore year, I was a candy striper at Washington Hospital Center in their oral surgery department. This was sort of the scary part of DC in those days...where they send the gunshot victims....I think I was the first and last Madeira girl to intern in their oral surgery. My supervisor was a very nice woman who was very tolerant of a privileged girl tagging along with her every Wednesday. She taught me how to assist in the surgeries which was actually pretty cool. Then I interned with Senator Durenberger from Minnesota junior year, because he was head of the Health and Human Services committee in the Senate. And finally, my senior year I interned in my own orthodontist's office. The assistants taught me to "assist" by taking off rubber bands, removing wires and how to hold open someone's mouth best while you are doing these things! They ended up giving me a book by Sarah Boynton (the cartoon artist) about chocolate (there was a hippo chasing a chocolate bar on the cover) at the end of the year, because apparently every Wednesday after lunch, I would buy a candy bar from the vending machine in the building! Remember you have to study to be a dentist before becoming an orthodontist. So that was pretty funny that I had a chocolate habit and I wanted to go into dentistry! Anyway, it apparently made a good resume/story for my college application, because I got into UVA, which turned out to be my dream school and made all the hard work at Madeira worth it! However, I took the freshman pre-med chemistry class and I realized that medicine may not be my calling....the good news is that I ended up picking a major I was really interested in and pretty good at, Rhetoric - The Art of Persuasion and I ended up in a successful career in sales!

Not only did I read a large amount of constituent mail about Obamacare in its early days, but I also was in the office on the day Elena Kagan met with Senator Kohl. She had just been nominated by President Obama to the Supreme Court, and she walked right by my desk, with a handful of photographers in tow. I was in an office with hugely friendly and welcoming people. Two of the Legislative Correspondents took me to lunch in the Senate Dining Room during my last week there, and we sat two tables away from Barbara Boxer (D-CA).