I could hardly contain
my excitement when I received an email early in February telling me I was
heading to Washington, D.C. in a few months to participate in the annual fraternity
and sorority Capitol Hill Visits. Before I knew it, I was flying into D.C. and
passing the Washington Monument—I had no idea what an amazing experience I was
in for.
The first couple of days in D.C. were
spent in training with the Patton-Boggs team to learn the ins and outs of not
only lobbying, but what we were lobbying for. The Collegiate Housing and
Infrastructure Act (CHIA) is a non-controversial bill trying to make its way
through Congress. Despite its non-controversial nature, there were a lot of
facts and points to learn, and the Patton-Boggs team made sure we knew all of
it. Training consisted of a series of lectures and then practicing lobbying
with our teammate. We spent two days in training, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., all in
preparation for the final day.
The morning of our visits to
Capitol Hill I was a little nervous. What if I forgot one of the facts? Or what
if the Congressional staff members we were meeting with were uninterested or
staunchly opposed to the bill? During the car ride into D.C., I kept checking
my facts and going over my prepared spiel. At last we made it to Capitol Hill,
and we rushed to the first office. Before I could catch my breath we were
seated at a round table in Congressman Todd Rokita's office. The legislative
assistant we talked to was openly supportive of the bill and incredibly warm.
Our group sat and joked with her before we were whisked away to the next
office. All of my nervousness had suddenly evaporated—this was going to be fun!
The rest of the day followed in a
similar fashion. The legislative assistants we met with were all warm and open
and took everything we said seriously. Despite their very busy schedules they
still took time to listen to our pitch and even gave us encouraging pointers
along the way. I was thrilled at how easy they were to talk to.
Pretty soon we were breezing through offices, and
by the time we came to the last one I couldn't believe it was over. We had
spent a day successfully lobbying for CHIA and had made some friends along the
way. Leaving Capitol Hill I had never felt so excited and proud of the work we
had accomplished. We may not have been the driving force that got the bill
passed, but we were definitely chipping away at the stone.
Tri Delta Takes Capitol Hill
