Reflecting on the prior week of the fellowship, I am amazed by how much has happened without me taking a single step outside of my own house.

 After one week in my internship, it amazed me how much has changed from the previous internships I’ve had. With Covid-19 limiting the chances of meeting anyone in person, my internship has been conducted remotely. The fellow interns have been in a similar state in which they would operate through Zoom for their internships and aid in researching legislation and reaching out to constituents, among other things. 

For my internship with Robbinsville Township, I am assisting in an initiative to aid local businesses, and my specific role is to organize data around different township programs. This program was designed to aid local Robbinsville businesses due to how Covid-19 affected them negatively. The program provides Robbinsville residents an incentive to shop at local stores compared to the other stores. The incentive was $20 for every 5 unique Robbinsville stores at which they spend $20 or more.  My job was to take each of the receipts given and organize them to provide each resident with the gift cards they had gotten through their shopping.

As part of the fellowship program, I was excited to participate in the first Saturday Speakership Series. Having set an alarm for 7 AM on Saturday, I eventually woke up at 9 AM, staring at my ceiling before realizing how late I had woken up! This prompted me to quickly eat my breakfast and rush towards the incoming Zoom Call. Despite the rushed start to the day, I was confident that I would still have a great experience with the speakers. The speakers included:

• Shanti Narra, Middlesex County Freeholder

• Frank Pallone, U.S. Representative for New Jersey’s 6th district

• Amol Sinha, Executive Director for the ACLU-NJ

• Sangeeta Doshi, Councilwoman for Cherry Hill township

Each speaker brought valuable knowledge on many different current issues and encouraged each of us to support in a variety of ways. Their kind words of encouragement inspired me to take a more active role within my community.

One story that particularly stood out to me was when Shanti Narra talked about how she got into the political field. While living in New Jersey for the majority of my life I had always imagined my community as culturally diverse, however, this wasn’t the case for Shanti Narra. She had to learn and acclimate to a new environment in which there wasn’t this high level of diversity that is present today. She had to step out of her comfort zone to make an impact within her community. This provided all of us with a better viewpoint and made us realize that we can make our opportunities to have a bigger influence within our townships

Throughout my internship, the experience has bolstered my prior knowledge of local politics, and I am very grateful for becoming a Fellow in the New Jersey Leadership Program. I have learned a lot and look to learn so much more under my internship and through the future Saturday Speakership Series.