Hello to All!
For anyone who is or has been an intern on the Hill
can attest to, the office jobs that are left undesired by full time staffers will likely become your
regular everyday duties. I must admit, my experiences during the first few
weeks as an intern at the House were very much this, but since the beginning of
June my role in the office has changed for the better. I am now working on
more riveting projects and leaving the office quite frequently.
One of my more recently picked up duties includes attending various
congressional briefings and then reporting back to the office with the relevant information. Not only does this provide me with a free lunch or
snack in most cases, but it also allows me to become acquainted with an
assortment of policy issues. Needless to say, it has become something that I
genuinely enjoy doing at work.
Continuing this trend, today I was assigned to attend a briefing put on
by Prevent Blindness America. The briefing concerned the Economic Burden of
Vision Problems and was addressed by Dr. Sandra Block, Medical Director for the
Illinois Eye Institute and John Wittenborn, a Research Scientist with NORC at
the University of Chicago. As a student with an economics background, Mr.
Wittenborn particularly interested me, because he had 15 years of experience
researching public health and economic issues.
(Great mission statement)
All in all, the clear take away from this experience was the magnitude
of the economic burden that vision loss and eye disorders creates in the United
States. $139 billion (direct & indirect costs) will be the total economic
burden of eye disorders and vision loss in the United States this year.
- Nathan Piper
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