Special congratulations to Washington Scholar Grad Jonathan Sih, who we’ve just learned is moving up the career ladder. Jon did his Washington Scholar internship on the staff of Congresswoman Judy Biggert of Illinois, and did such a good job there [also where Washington Scholar Grad Zach Cikanek is the Press Secretary] that he was hired onto the staff full time to begin his national public policy career path. That was a year and a half ago. Today we learned that Jon has been hired to be a Legislative Assistant at the firm of Russ Reid here in Washington, DC—— the firm specializes in Congressional Relations and the Congressional Appropriations process as it applies to not-for-profit organizations. So our first New Year 2008 congratulations go to Jonathan Sih of the University of Texas as he begins to move up the career ladder in this, his national public policy career and professional involvement.
OK, so maybe I’m overly proud of The Washington Scholars Fellowship Program , but in my opinion it has truly become one of the absolute finest training programs in the nation for bringing our nation’s future leaders to Washington, DC and providing them with experience and credentialing that then prepares them to be a future leader of the country. The program has now graduated almost 100 young men and women, with close to 40% now fully employed in national public policy careers where they have the opportunity to work for America and make ours a better nation. The other 60% are back in college completing their undergrad degrees, or in Grad School or Law School, and I fully expect them to enter national public policy careers once their formal education is completed and they have those sheepskins to hang on their office wall. In my opinion, America needs the best and brightest of our sons & daughters in it’s leadership if we are to continue to prosper and survive the challenges the world keeps sending our way, and I am seeing the GREAT ROLE that these young Washington Scholars can AND ARE playing in making all that happen. Read more »