Last Day

Thursday, April 10th was the last (and to be cliché about it, certainly not least) day in Sacramento. We began the day at Nossaman LLP, a lobbying firm. Immediately the words “lobbying firm” conjures up images of modern architecture, and it certainly did not fail to live up to its expectations. But the greatest honor was in talking to Barry Broad, who specializes with labor unions; Ashley Setoudeh, and her emphasis on education policy; as well as briefly with Meg Catzen-Brown whose focus has been water and green policies. They gave us a brilliant overview of what it is like to be a lobbyist and shared some really choice anecdotes about what it’s like to lobby.

We all split up to lunch for half an hour, but when we turned we were able to listen to Monica, the higher education policy advisor for Speaker of the Assembly.

After a break of about an hour and a half, we met up with Mike Peterson, a Republican judiciary consultant. He brought with him Kerry and Richard Paul from the Senate Fellows program. Lastly, we met with Claire Conlon, press secretary for Senator Kevin de Leon.

It was a great day, and a great trip. We were all so blessed to have had the opportunity to receive advice and simply be in the company of political giants. I don’t have to poll my peers to know that the entire experience was utterly incomparable, and that “thank you” falls very flat in the face of the gratitude we feel towards those who made it all possible.

-          Elena Salcido