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UC Students Get Capitol Experience

February 9, 2007


UC Students Get Capitol Experience

Matt Creeger learned one important lesson at the beginning of his internship with the Legislature: He learned that he had a lot to learn.

Creeger, a senior at UC Merced, served a semester-long internship through the UC Center Sacramento Scholar Intern Program last year.

An interest in international trade drew Creeger to the program.

You can only learn so much from books and lectures, Creeger, 22, said.

It’s absolutely critical that if you want know about public policy you have to experience it.

In the program, students can live and study at the UC Sacramento Center for the fall or summer semester or for a quarter in the spring. The working and living environment gives students from different campuses, like the young women pictured here, a chance to get to know each other.

Students pay regular tuition and take classes, but are also matched up with internship programs like the one Creeger served - with the Senate Sub-Committee on International Trade.

Students also get to conduct research in the areas that most interest them.

It’s really hands on, Creeger said. A lot of things about politics you just have to experience and see for yourself.

Cognitive sciences and economics major Nolan Noble, who also took part in the program last year, had been researching female criminal offenders. He was matched to an internship with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s female offender program.

Noble worked directly under the assistant director, and even got a special tour of the state’s largest female prison.

I learned quite a bit about the Department of Corrections and its use-of-force policy, Noble said. I’d recommend UC Sac to anyone - especially if they’re interested in policy.

Campus coordinator Kelly Patterson, in the Career Services Center, said she can send up to four students a semester or quarter, but students have to apply. They also must be juniors or seniors and in good academic standing.

With internships in a variety of topics such as criminal justice, science and technology, economics and the environment, Patterson said the program is not just for aspiring politicians.

The program is really committed to making more out of your experience,

Creeger added.

Deadline for summer applications is March 2. For more information, visit
http://uccs.universityofcalifornia.eduor call Kelly Patterson at 228-4259.