Arne & His Interns

Last week, I had the opportunity to attend a lunch with the United States Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan.  This guy is the head honcho for not only me, a lowly intern, but for everyone I work with, and all of their supervisors too.  The Big Cheese in the Department of Education, I had only heard rumors of his existence before this day.  People speak very highly of him around my office, and I have been told repeatedly over the summer that if I get the chance, I should definitely try to meet him or at least hear him speak. 

Lo and behold, the intern program coordinator, De’Rell, who is a former intern himself, organized this event to make both of those things happen (shout out to you, De’Rell. I know you’re reading this.)  Secretary Duncan spoke to all of the ED interns and took their questions for almost a full hour in the main auditorium at the Lyndon B. Johnson building, the Department’s headquarters.  This is very unusual for the Secretary, as he is known for preparing statements beforehand and only taking questions that he has seen in advance, sticking to a carefully crafted script.  I guess he thinks there are some things in ED that are better left unsaid. 

But on this occasion, he was totally candid and eager to spend time with all of us young professionals, the YoPros, the summer interns.  There are about 100 of us overall, spread out through different offices within the Department, and we first went around and gave him our basic information--name, interning office, and what school we attend (Go Bucks...duh!)-- which made the atmosphere more personal than if we were just attending another speech by the Secretary.  Secretary Duncan insists that people call him by his first name, and wasn’t afraid to remind people of that as they asked their questions.

 He gave us a brief background on his life and how he got to where he is today, but then opened the floor to questions.  People asked everything ranging from how he is planning on combating sexual assault on college campuses, to what his plan is for reigning in skyrocketing student debt, to what his greatest challenge as Secretary has been so far.  Arne is an enthusiastic and engaging speaker, and he even asked for intern input when he found a question addressed a particularly difficult problem.  All of the questions he took into careful consideration before answering them in a sincere and thoughtful way.  He was quick to show his appreciation for all of the interns and even took the time to take a picture with each of us after he was done speaking, because he’s basically a celebrity I guess.  I have yet to see this photograph, but I’ve been told it supposedly will be sent to me digitally and in snail mail format.   

I wish I could have spoken to the Secretary for a more extended period of time, but I’m sure from our brief interaction I made a lasting impression.  Okay…definitely not, but it was still great to meet him!  I consider it to be my little brush with D.C. fame for the day.  This is only one of several events that the Department of Education interns were able to attend over the summer, but this was my favorite.  Aside from being an education policy professional, I’ve been told Arne is also a great basketball player.  He was captain of the Harvard basketball team during his time there and even earned first team Academic All-American honors.  So next time I meet him, I’ll have to take him on in a little game of b-ball before we talk about education policy.

Ignore the girl's large head in front of me...Secretary Duncan is speaking!



Arne ballin' back in the day at Harvard

 

 

-Ellie LeBuhn