A core part of forming the future for LEO is sending our students to spend their summer on Capitol Hill connecting with policymakers and disseminating LEO’s research.
Bridget Schippers, who interned in Washington, D.C. the summer of 2023, remembers sitting in a hearing about the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) program and thinking about her future academic career.
Over the course of her internship, she sat in on many Congressional hearings related to LEO’s research. Bridget was struck by the ways in which legislators used different language to talk about very similar assistance programs — WIC, the USDA’s Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, and MIECHV.
“Between those two hearings, it was amazing to me, because they’re very similar programs,” she said. “They’re the same clients, but they’re housed in different departments … and the language that was used in the Senate hearings to talk about each one was very, very different.”
Bridget is now pursuing her Ph.D. in political science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She is currently choosing her subfields but wants to study polarization and public opinion around assistance programs. Her interest in the topic arose during her summer in D.C. with LEO.
“Being able to go to those like Senate committee hearings was very powerful to see how legislators are actually talking about these things, and how different it is from the world of research. But then also witnessing different organizations testifying before Congress made me realize that there is a strong opportunity for connections between legislators and the nonprofit sphere,” she said. “They are calling on people, so what’s important is that we’re also there for them to call on, for them to be able to know that there is additional research available.”
“Being able to go to those like Senate committee hearings was very powerful to see how legislators are actually talking about these things, and how different it is from the world of research. But then also witnessing different organizations testifying before Congress made me realize that there is a strong opportunity for connections between legislators and the nonprofit sphere. They are calling on people, so what’s important is that we’re also there for them to call on, for them to be able to know that there is additional research available.”
Bridget first connected with LEO’s mission as a communications intern after her freshman year. But being up close and personal with the legislative process was eye-opening, she said.
“I learned that the process has so many more actors than I realized. It’s not just nonprofits and lawmakers,” Bridget said. “It's worth understanding what comes to light, like what gets lifted up and what doesn’t.”
Jill Pentimonti, who works with the LEO intern in D.C., encouraged Bridget to reach out to Notre Dame alums who were working in policymaking over the course of the internship. Speaking with them—and observing hearings connected to LEO research—drew her to graduate school.
“It helped me realize how we might be able to partner with them, but also helped me envision myself in each of those areas,” she said. “I thought that I would be happy doing any of those types of jobs—that they were all doing very impactful work—and getting a Ph.D. was something that would open up the door to any of those.”
LEO intern Irene Levering shared many of the same sentiments. Irene interned at LEO during the pandemic, so much of her internship was virtual, but she now works full time in D.C. for the Notre Dame Office of Federal and Washington Relations. Her experience communicating with policymakers for LEO was very informative in deciding to move to D.C. after graduation.
“I really appreciate the idea of evidence-based policymaking and LEO’s emphasis on impact evaluation, and I think that really informed a lot of what I wanted to do. I had been exposed at LEO to all this incredible research that the University is doing, and all this great scholarly work that's happening at Notre Dame in the evidence space,” Irene said. “It’s kind of that through line still of that impact evaluation and ensuring that this phenomenal research that we’re doing is actually driving real change.”
Now, Irene’s work at the Washington office continues to “convene and connect” between academic researchers on campus and policymakers in Washington, D.C.
Irene applied to be a LEO intern because of the focus on impact evaluations. She recalled a service project with an organization that had hosted many iterations of volunteer groups in the past. The walls were covered with about 20 group photos.
“It was really hard to see, because it was like, year after year, folks are coming in and really trying to make a difference and help out. In a lot of ways, they are, but in a lot of ways, the systemic issues of the region still exist,” Irene said.
The experience was like a reckoning for her own volunteer group, she said. “What are we doing here? Is it effective? That’s what I love about LEO is the emphasis on impact evaluation, on finding the solutions to poverty that actually work.”
Throughout her internship, Irene helped to distill complicated LEO research into concise and accessible briefs. Though she works with all kinds of researchers these days, ensuring that research reaches legislators and informs policy is still a key part of her job.
“I think that's actually quite a bipartisan issue,” she said. “I think on both sides of the aisle, members are very invested in finding what actually works, both from the perspective of efficiency and cost savings, but then also the perspective that Americans deserve programs that are effective.”