Kelsey Carido

Kelsey Carido is a junior, majoring in International Relations with a human rights minor. Kelsey took this quarter off to work in D.C. as an intern at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Kelsey spoke with us about her experience applying her I.R. interests to work on the Hill.

Tell us about your internship with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. What’s the role of the committee and what are some tasks you’ve worked on?

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee covers everything to do with foreign policy in the Senate. I work for the Democratic staff of Senator Menendez, current Chairman of the Committee. [The staffers] make policy recommendations, work with Chairman Menendez to shape U.S. foreign policy, and cover everything from legislation to nomination hearings. I work with the Western Hemisphere team, covering foreign relations everywhere from Canada to Chile and Brazil. I’ve attended a lot of cool meetings, drafted memos, and even contributed to research for updating legislation. 

One of my favorite experiences has been preparing talking points for Senator Menendez’s briefings with foreign leaders. Recently, he met with the President of Ecuador and a lot of what interns do is gather information for briefing the Chairman on those meetings. 

Tell us about your experience interning right now, during Covid-19 and the Presidential transition.

Working [at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee] during the Presidential transition has been very crazy but extremely rewarding! [The Committee] fields a lot of the nomination hearings related to foreign affairs, for example, Tony Blinken for Secretary of State, Linda Thomas-Greenfield for UN Ambassador, and upcoming we have Samantha Power for USAID. This process has been really cool to witness, even though much of it has been online.

Has this internship made you consider a career in government?

Experiencing how Capitol Hill works have been invaluable to me as I continue to explore what I want to do after I graduate. After interning at the State Department [last quarter], it's been amazing to compare my experience at State with how legislators work on the Hill and even now I am getting the sense there are more communication and rebuilding of the relationship between Congress and the State Department [because of the new administration]. I’m definitely interested in pursuing a career related to International Relations, and maybe returning to work on the Hill... I’ve gotten to speak with lots of congressional staffers, some of whom came from internships themselves, and to me, that speaks to what a great job it is.