Only at Western

Local students are serving in the Capitol during the 2010 Budget Session, which convened on Monday, February 8.  Bobbi Lamb(far left), of Mountain View, and Suzy Sholar, of Rock Springs, are interns serving during this session under the joint sponsorship of Western Wyoming Community College and Sweetwater BOCES".  They are participating in the session as part of a political science course, instructed by Dr. Dudley Gardner.  As interns, they are serving in a varied and dynamic capacity under the daily direction and guidance of Lavonda Kopsa, of the Legislative Service Office.  Along with academics, the internship also offers the opportunity to work with many different legislators.  In addition to serving in the general pool of interns who are available to assist all legislators, Lamb and Sholar have been assigned to work with Senator John Hastert, and Representatives Stan Blake, Bernadine Craft, and Owen Peterson.

The interns’ impressions at this stage of their first active participation in a legislative session are those of enthusiasm and excitement, and also of exhaustion.  Sholar feels like “there is an ever-pulsing energy that permeates the marble lined halls. From committee meetings to general sessions, from public tours to copying and collating of bills in the basement, from lobbyists to visiting members of the community, throughout the Capitol there is always so much going on!”  Lamb stated that she is “so grateful for the opportunity afforded for her to serve.”

Representative Petersen is “extremely excited about having two interns working with the Legislative Session who attend Western Wyoming Community College and are interested in legislative process and in rendering public service.”  Representative Craft commented that Lamb and Sholar “come with high recommendations” and after just a few days of service, she has claimed that she is “keeping them for her own.”  From lunch-time meetings, to committee and research work, to observing the legislative proceedings, Lamb and Sholar are experiencing the full gambit of events happening in and around the Capitol this time of the year.

Sholar was selected as the Wyoming Legislative Scholarship recipient for the 2010 Legislative Session.
Sholar said that “being saturated with a government in action is an extremely intense experience, like none other. It is something that must be experienced to be understood and one which all members of our society would be privileged to have.”