This past semester, I worked as an intern on the Political Affairs Team at The Borgen Project, a nonprofit political advocacy organization that works to make combating global poverty a focus of U.S. foreign policy. The internship definitely had its highs and lows, particularly given the difficulties of remote work, but I learned so much from the experience and I’m very happy I had the opportunity to do it. One of the biggest lessons I took from my experience working at The Borgen Project was both the value and the challenges of citizen engagement with members of Congress. A primary objective of the organization is to get citizens to use their voices to interact with their elected leaders on behalf of issues that matter to them, and that goal inspired much of the work I did as a Political Affairs intern. It was difficult to secure meetings with elected leaders or their staff, and I found myself at times frustrated by that process, but I learned that every person, no matter their background, has a right and a responsibility to stand up for the issues that they are passionate about. The ability to engage with our democratic system is one of the privileges we have as citizens of this country, and my time with The Borgen Project really instilled that value within me.