“We were coming out of the capitol building and Corey Booker, Carolyn Maloney, and Elizabeth Warren were standing, casually talking,” senior Anjali Dixit said.

Over the summer, Dixit spent two weeks interning in Washington D.C. with Congressman Christian Murphy from the eighth district of Illinois. In order to pass a bill, interns such as Dixit research bill presented and write memos detailing the bill for their senator.

“Based on the memos that I wrote, Congressman Morphy decides whether or not he wants to sign on to those bills and co-sponsor them,” Dixit said, “That ultimately pushes bills forward to the Senate: more congresspeople that sign on, the more positive votes you’re gonna get.”

Dixit helped campaign for many bills currently being debated in congress, one of those being the Child Care for Working Families Act.

“Because child care is extremely expensive for the working class and blue-collar workers, that bill was proposed to allocate more funds to go to those families to make childcare more accessible,” Dixit said.

Dixit’s passion for change comes from her own non-profit, Teens for Change, which is what introduced her to Senator Murphy.
“The congressman was doing a fundraising event that I got invited to,” Dixit said. “We started talking and he said he had an available position. I reached out to his office, and got an interview.”

Through the weeks Dixit spent in the nation’s capital, she learned about her love for politics.

“Being a part of congress, you just really understand how many different areas you can be involved in. There are so many different moving parts that you have a chance to impact and be a part of,” Dixit said. “We’re all ultimately working towards one goal of making a positive change in our community.”