Daniel Cohen ’14 (a political science and communications major from Beavercreek, Ohio) knew before last summer that he wanted to work to reform campaign finance laws. When he found an internship with an organization called Public Citizen, which is working toward a constitutional amendment to limit corporate campaign donations, he jumped at the opportunity to help. As a D.C. intern for Public Citizen, Daniel networked and organized events with political activists across the country; he also directly lobbied legislators at the state and federal level to encourage campaign finance reform.
The summer before, Daniel worked in the Washington, D.C. office of Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown, where he got to see the legislative process from the inside. Working for Public Citizen helped Daniel understand how a consumer advocacy group could affect that process from outside the government. Daniel completed his internship with the support of an APEX Fellowship, which helped him afford the costs of living in Washington, D.C. for a summer.
Daniel, a senior, will soon move on to a job with Teach for America in urban Ohio. His internship experiences helped him to understand how important public service would be to his future, and to find this exciting opportunity with TFA.
By Madeleine O’Neill ’16