Opening Doors to Democracy: Rutgers–Newark and Braven Send Students to Capitol Hill

Unless you're a Capitol Hill insider, you probably don’t know that behind every elected official there’s a legislative staff helping to shape policies that affect every American.

But becoming a staffer is often reserved for people with connections, Ivy League educations, and the resources to serve unpaid internships in one of the nation’s most expensive cities. 

A program created in partnership with Rutgers-Newark’s Sheila Y. Oliver Center for Politics and Race in America (CPRA)  and Braven, a career accelerator for college students, has enabled more students to seize those opportunities.

For the second year, a group of Rutgers–Newark students spent nine weeks interning in congressional offices in Washington, D.C.

At an event co-sponsored by the center and the School of Public Affairs and Administration (SPAA), interns described learning firsthand how democracy works—and who gets to take part in it. The experience convinced them that their voices, and their knowledge, matters in a place where few share backgrounds like their own.

This year’s interns were Edwin Pineada-Cortes, Karen Perez, Esron Holder, Jacinay Coleman-Shelton, Alexis Castro, and Moujan Moghimi. As part of their job, they wrote memos, went to policy briefings, and gave tours. But among their most important roles were fielding calls from constituents and writing recommendations for bills. 

Because many of the interns were raised in immigrant families and have lived in urban neighborhoods, they could connect with constituents like themselves in a way that others could not, they said.

Cortes, a Political Science student, handled calls on immigration and healthcare, providing a perspective that’s often missing on the Hill. 

“This fueled my desire to go into public service,” he said. “There are people who really need help. If I’m not going to do it, someone’s got to.”

For decades, Congressional internships have gone disproportionately to students from elite universities. Fifty percent of paid interns attend private universities, although those schools enroll just 25 percent of U.S. students. But the role can open the door to a wealth of opportunities for interns and ensure that more Americans are represented.

“It matters who gets to intern,” said James Jones, director of the center and author of The Last Plantation, a book about exclusion on Capitol Hill, where Black interns and other interns of color have been a rarity.

 “Internships are the entry point into political careers and into the roles where real policy work happens. If we don’t diversify those ranks, we limit whose perspectives shape our laws,’’ he said.

Jones was once an intern on Capitol Hill himself. “I realized the people behind the scenes, the staffers and interns, are the ones driving action. So if those people don’t look like the country they serve, the implications are huge,'' he said.

The CPRA–Braven Congressional Internship Program provides full financial support, including housing and travel stipends, to remove barriers that too often block talented students from low-income or first-generation backgrounds.

“Expanding access to meaningful opportunities is not just what we do—it’s who we are,” said Samantha Crockett, Braven’s Newark Executive Director. “What makes this program unique is that every piece of it is designed to remove barriers—financial, social, and informational—that keep certain students from careers in public policy. When programs are designed with everyone in mind, we reshape what leadership looks like,’’ she said.

For Democratic State Senator Renee Burgess, New Jersey’s first African-American senator from Irvington and a member of several key state committees, supporting the initiative was a “no-brainer.” After meeting with Rutgers–Newark leaders and Braven representatives, she helped secure $250,000 in state funding to support the Capitol Hill internships.

“I was once that person who needed someone to give me a hand, that extra push and confidence,” Burgess said. “Now I can use my voice not just for one ZIP code but for everybody. When I heard what they were doing for these students, it wasn’t hard to say yes.”

For the fellows, the experience was both professional training ground and personal awakening.

Castro, a senior studying communication and journalism and the son of Ecuadorian immigrants, interned with Representative Lois Frankel of Florida and often responded to constituent calls.

“Serving in a congressional office was astonishing,” he said. “It showed me that empathy is just as important as influence. This experience has been the most important thing in my life so far.”

Perez, a School of Public Affairs and Administration major, worked on higher-education policy and said it transformed her understanding of government. “I thought I knew how the federal government worked—but it’s not until you’re in it that you really learn,” she said. “I was reading the reconciliation bill on higher education and realized how few of my peers even knew what it was. Knowledge is power. If we don’t know what’s going on, how can we change it?”

The experience inspired Perez to pursue a career in higher education policy and she is now an intern with the New Jersey Secretary of Higher Education. 

Holder, a Rutgers Business School student and Caribbean immigrant, faced challenges as one of the few Black men interning on the Hill. “There were moments when I felt out of place,” he said. “But this program helped me step out of my comfort zone and realize my voice and experiences add a lot to the table.”

At the close of the ceremony, Chancellor Tonya Smith-Jackson reflected on the program’s mission.

“We need more people educated in areas like policy, public affairs, and law so our lenses are represented. Politics is about people and power, and many don’t get access to the social capital or networks that open those doors. This program changes that,’’ she said.

For Dean Kaifeng Yang of SPAA, the students’ transformation reflects exactly what public-service education should do.

When he arrived from China as an international student at Rutgers–Newark in1999, he barely spoke English. He once walked into a city council meeting, nervous but curious, and tried to ask questions on the way out. “They looked at me, annoyed,” he recalled. “The sound of the elevator door closing as I left stayed with me for 35 years. I felt powerless. But that’s when I realized democracy can feel intimidating if you don’t speak its language.”

Yang went on to write his dissertation on citizen participation and now leads SPAA’s new Next Generation Public Service Academy, which trains students in leadership, civic engagement, and evidence-based policy.

“Public service is not only about passion—it requires skill, confidence, and collaboration,” he said. “Engagement can be taught. We want every student on this campus to be an informed citizen who knows how to ask the questions that open doors, not close them.”