Political Engagement Grant Interns Get Hands-on Civic Experience
A number of Wesleyan students received Political Engagement Fund grants this summer through the Allbritton Center for the Study of Public Life to support volunteer and internship opportunities in the public sphere. They used the grant funds of up to $5,000 to cover expenses related to work in politics or issues advocacy.
The first week of July was a particularly chaotic one for Harry Malcoun ’28, who served as a legislative intern in Rep. Debbie Dingell’s office in Washington, D.C. The House of Representatives had been called back into session to vote on the H.R.1, also known as the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act.” Dingell’s office was getting three to four calls per minute from constituents concerned about losing Medicaid or Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits. Malcoun and his colleagues also had to coordinate getting the congresswoman back to D.C. from Michigan for the vote.
“They were honestly emotional days because I had to deal with a lot of constituents who were losing some basic rights that they had been afforded for the past 20 years or so,” he said. “It was pretty crazy.” While the bill passed, one highlight for Malcoun was getting to watch House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries deliver his marathon speech, designed to delay the vote.
Malcoun was not new to politics. He has been involved in local politics since before college, working on mayoral campaigns in Evanston, Illinois. He also previously worked for Dingell, who represents Michigan’s 6th district, as a field employee and later as a social media intern. While there was no typical day for interns, his work often involved compiling mentions of the congresswoman in the media, taking constituent calls, summarizing notes from hearings, and drafting letters to constituents.
“I have a passion for working on social issues and I saw legislative work as that next step,” said Malcoun. “I wanted to learn how Congress negotiates and passes the bills that will shape our future.”
As a film studies and government double major, with a civic engagement minor, Malcoun is hoping to combine his passions for both disciplines in the future. Even though the current administration has targeted public media, such as Voice of America, for cuts, he sees an opportunity for reviving it through support from the private sector and non-partisan groups. “After cuts to public broadcasting, I have realized that my interests intersect. As someone who grew up on programs that are now at risk of shutting down, I hope to be a part of something that rebuilds access to educational media. While the cuts will limit access to non-partisan news, the majority of their effects will be on children. The government is removing their access to shows and movies that teach them the power of imagination, and I want to be a part of something that restores that,” he said.
On the opposite coast, Elana Hartley ’28, volunteered for HIP Housing, a nonprofit in San Mateo, California that helps provide access to affordable housing. In that role, she assists with events and activities at senior centers managed by HIP—which stands for Human Investment Project— and also does outreach in the community to engage people who might need housing solutions. “It's really exciting to get to talk to people that are actively being affected by the housing crisis and be able to be a physical embodiment of someone that wants to help so that they know that they're not alone,” she said.
HIP offers opportunities such as a home-sharing program that matches individuals seeking a place to live with people who have a vacant room or other space to rent. “It’s an impactful organization that's been around for a long time and it also has a wide variety of options that provide help to different people in the Bay Area,” she said.
Affordable housing is a long-standing interest for Hartley, who volunteered in food pantries as a child and has learned about the issue in classes, like "From Metropolis to Megalopolis," at Wesleyan. She’s also conducted research through the Wesleyan Institute for Policy and volunteered for Habitat for Humanity. A College of Social Studies major with a data analysis minor, Hartley plans to go to law school. “I'm interested in land-use law and investigating how zoning law and different systems allow us to create affordable housing along with office space and parks in cities,” she said.
Through her research and internship experience, she has learned that housing instability affects more than those who are unhoused, including people with unsustainable rental costs. “The housing crisis goes beyond the homelessness crisis,” she said.
Miles Horner ’26 first became interested in urban gardens during the COVID-19 pandemic, when he temporarily lost access to community and to the outdoors. He volunteered for an organic farm and an environmental youth organization in New York, and later continued pursuing this work at Wesleyan, where he joined Long Lane Farm his first year. His internship is at the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space in New York, which highlights the history of activists who transformed abandoned lots into community spaces and gardens.
“I knew that I wanted to do something related to community gardens or urban gardening in New York City because I live in New York City and I love it,” said Horner. “I did a lot of research on that topic during the school year and thought that it was important to follow up with that.”
As a community garden coordinator, Horner tends to three gardens in Alphabet City, a neighborhood in the East Village. He helps community members with their individual plots, keeps an eye on the fish pond and lawn, and provides visitors with tours, educating them about the history of the gardens. “The gardens were abandoned lots in the 70s and 80s. New York City was going through a financial crisis,” he said. “Community members took it upon themselves to green them up to go and turn them into community gardens.”
The internship complements what Horner is studying as a Science in Society major. “I've also seen it firsthand here, which has been really, really cool, being able to complement that research,” he said. He likens community gardens to Swiss army knives, or multi-purpose tools “for tackling social, environmental, and even physical problems.” For example, the gardens bring different people together in community, growing vegetables reduces emissions, and research shows there are health benefits from being in green spaces, he said.
Horner’s experience has put him in contact with people who are doing the type of work he may want to pursue after college, including urban agriculture, gardening, farming, landscape design, and architecture. “That's been really interesting and in terms of my senior project,” he said. “Seeing how this exists in the real world is really, really helpful for understanding why this is such an important activity and why the cultivation of these spaces is important.”
