Internship in Local Politics to Communications Director in D.C.

For Jack Stelzner (BA '19), it is "without a doubt" that he wouldn't be where he is now without his experience at the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities. From classes to internships, his time as a political science student was "everything [he] needed it to be."

The First Dominoes to Fall

As an undergraduate student, Jack was able to find his first internship through the Department of Political Science and earn academic credit for internships by taking POL 3080: Internship in Politics or Government. As a result, he was able to graduate a semester early with critical work experience. 

His first internship was with the Democratic- Farmer-Labor Party (DFL) as a training and party affairs intern in 2017. He worked on the operations side in the lead-up to the 2018 midterms, helping the training and party affairs department with caucuses and conventions, from precincts to Congressional districts to the DFL state convention in Rochester.

Jack then joined Senator Klobuchar's team as an intern for the Senate race in 2018, working closely with the press secretary. After a short break to study abroad in the spring of 2019, he returned to the team as a communications fellow for Klobuchar's presidential campaign. By working on a smaller team, there were not many layers between Jack, as an entry-level communications staffer, to the top of the communications team, which helped him gain important experience.

In reflecting on these experiences, the domino effect of his opportunities is clear to Jack. "If I didn't have the internship at the DFL, I wouldn't have gotten involved with [Klobuchar's] Senate race in 2018. If I wasn't on her Senate race, I wouldn't have been able to get an internship on her presidential, and then it was because of her presidential race that I was able to find my first job out of school." The combination of these experiences allowed Jack to build a solid foundation of communications work and be prepared for his next opportunity.

Path to D.C.

In the midst of COVID and after his work on Klobuchar's presidential campaign, Jack took on a communications director position in Nevada for a congressional race. Following his candidate's win, Jack was hired as their press secretary in D.C., working in support of the communications director.

After a year in that role, the Congress member for where Jack grew up in California was hiring a communications director. For Jack, it was the perfect opportunity to take his next professional step, and he held that role for about two and a half years.

A year and a half ago, Jack transitioned into his current position with Congresswoman Diana DeGette from Colorado as her communications director. In this role, there is a second communications staff member and a larger budget, giving Jack the opportunity to do a bit more.

One of his key responsibilities is keeping Congresswoman DeGette informed on news, particularly that related to healthcare policy, as she is the top Democrat on the Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee and a long-time advocate for biomedical research in the NIH. Additionally, he is responsible for responding to interview requests from local and national press; preparing her for interviews; and writing social media posts, press releases, and speeches. At the heart of all he does is making sure Congresswoman DeGette has everything she needs and amplifying the work she's doing.

"It's a very collaborative position and it's one of the reasons I wanted to pursue comms in the first place," said Jack. "We have to be able to write about everything the boss is doing and so we need to have some knowledge about it, so we get to deal with a lot of very interesting things."

Advice to Students

To current and prospective students, Jack recommends paying attention to political news in order to have an understanding of what's going on and forming an opinion as to why it's happening. No matter where you get your news or your party affiliation, it's helpful to stay on top of at least a few issues to show that you're engaged and willing to dive into an issue.

By Sophia Paschke, communications associate.