Puja Bhatia, a fourth-year international development studies student, said she knew she had always wanted to try something new before going to law school.
And while some students opt for traveling abroad or going straight to graduate school after graduation, Bhatia will be working as part of Sen. Hillary Clinton’s, D-N.Y., campaign for the Iowa caucus.
With the primary and general elections approaching, Bhatia is one of the students spending time this summer to work or intern for the political campaigns of presidential candidates.
In an election where there are no incumbents running from either of the major political parties, some students say it is this blank slate that draws their interests in working for the candidates’ campaigns.
“It is such a revolutionary campaign that it was something I had to do. … This was a perfect opportunity,” Bhatia said.
Dario Bravo, the manager of the internship and study abroad office, said they have had students in the past who have interned for congressional and presidential campaigns and have later on gone to work for those candidates.
“We’ve had students who have been involved in a number of campaigns, and they’ve gone to work in the White House or on the Hill,” Bravo said.
Bhatia, who originally intended on taking the LSAT this summer, changed her plans after she got the offer to work with the Clinton campaign.
She added that if Clinton did win the primary and general election and she was offered a job in the White House, it would be “a difficult thing to turn down.”
Nikhil Chawla, a third-year political science student, said he is currently looking into internships with Clinton as well.
He said what excites him about this election is the role that the California primary now has.
The primary has been scheduled earlier this time around and can now be more influential in determining the candidates who make it to the general election.
“This primary is so competitive, and there’s definitely going to be a presence of Democratic candidates in California,” Chawla said.
“California is finally going to play a role in this election.”
Chawla added that, normally, candidates do not pay a lot of attention to California in the general election because historically it is a Democratic state.
But with the primary election moved to February from June, when most of the state elections have already been held, it might give candidates a greater incentive to come to the state.
But since the primaries are beginning so much earlier, if students are still interested, they should begin applying for these internships as soon as possible, Bravo said.
“You really need to be doing it now because there’s not much time to waste,” Bravo said.
With reports from Ravi Doshi, Bruin contributor.