Last year philosophy major Christina Soriano interned at Dorn Policy Group. Christina was eager to dip her toes into a new field, but couldn’t find any internships in Arizona.

“I eventually stumbled upon an article Dorn Policy Group had released about what their interns did from a few years ago, in that article it had stated that if you wanted to intern with them just send an email through their website of why you think you would be a good fit, so I did,” she said. “A few weeks went by, and I eventually got an interview and was hired.”

Christina’s duties consisted mostly of researching candidates that range from city council to state positions. She also helped with smaller projects and events such as AZBio week and reaching out to people and making connections.

Other than finding parking in the city, she says the most challenging thing was navigating the different projects she was working on.

“A lot of them started off the same when it came to projects dealing with legislators, so it was kind of difficult to keep track of what was specifically for one project and what was for another,” she said.

Soriano wishes that before she started she knew just how involved Dorn Policy Group is with the Arizona government. She knew a little bit about them, but didn’t realize how many people relied on them for information and what a huge list of clients they have.

The internship helped grow her skills. She says she tends to be shy in new environments but going to events like AZBio week or people coming into the office really pushed her into talking to new people and networking with them, even when it made her uncomfortable.

She says the most rewarding thing about her experience was being exposed to something she hadn’t considered doing before.

“I am currently looking at jobs to start post grad,” she said “I am not too sure what I exactly want to do, but I also don’t want to have my mind set on something that I want to do just in case my plans don’t go as I want”.

Christina’s final words of advice are, “Do not give up. It took me a long time to find the opportunity at Dorn, but after countless searching, I ended up finding the opportunity and ended up interviewing. My other advice is being open to trying new things. I originally wanted to do something related to law, but lobbying interested me a tiny bit so I took the chance and now it is something I’m considering as a career path after graduating.”