Internship-Connection-Center

In conjunction with the Texas Politics Project, the Department of Government is excited to announce the launch of the Internship Connection Center, a one-stop shop for internships in politics and government. Whether you want to be an intern or hire an intern, this is the site for you.

The web service is designed primarily to help connect University of Texas students with opportunities in politics and government in Austin, but all students and political and governmental entities are invited to use the site. The site is publicly accessible, so it can be used by any students, anywhere. Legislators looking for interns for home offices or congressional and agency offices with Washington, DC positions are encouraged to post internships as positions open.

If you have questions, please direct them to Dr. James Henson, director of the Texas Politics Project and the Department of Government Internship Program.

The department’s long running internship program provides a venue for University of Texas at Austin students to spend a semester working in a legislative office or other political job while registered in a course that infuses academic context into their experience.

The internship program is now supplemented by the Texas Politics Project, an active fusion of teaching, research and public outreach activities that focuses on politics, government and public service in Texas.

Evolving in tandem since 2003, the two programs provide a network of contacts and activities strengthening the natural connections between The University of Texas and Capitol communities.

The internship program provides a reliable channel for students to engage in practical learning about politics — and for some who embrace the challenges of politics as a vocation, to embark on careers. The program allows students to combine public service with intellectual reflection on their experience. In a series of essays for the course, the interns situate their experiences within a broader analysis of politics as a profession.

Internships follow the rhythm of the political system. The Legislature is a steady venue for internships which increase in number every other year when lawmakers are in session. During election years, some students gravitate to the roller coaster experience of campaign work. State agencies, particularly the Office of the Attorney General, attract a steady stream of students.

Following the evolution of state politics, more and more students intern with the advocacy groups, political consultants and lobbying firms representing the increasingly professionalized business of politics.

But the program’s touchstone remains the Texas Legislature, where numerous former interns and other alumni hold prominent staff positions and work for the many advocacy organizations whose representatives roam the Capitol halls.