DAY 1 as a field intern

Today was my first day interning for Mayor Wu’s reelection campaign—all weekend, I was eager to start! We began with a Zoom call, as most of the work is remote for now, and I met two of my supervisors, Kevin and Sky. My task for the day was calling 100 volunteers who were registered with Mayor Wu’s campaign, to see if they were available to help out with phone banking (which is remote), or with canvassing shifts, which is when we all gather as a group and go campaigning door to door.

At first, I thought this task would take me only two hours—how hard could it be to call and register people for events? But as time ticked by, I realized that this wasn’t a quick task. I started at around 11 am, after my introduction meeting, and finally finished up by 3 pm. While I had the wrong number for the first person registered, I got into a groove after my first couple of attempts. Kevin and Sky had given me a script and told me to try and stick to it—but also to make it sound like me. I was happy that I was allowed to branch out and talk even further with some people. There was one man in particular who was fun to talk to—he had told me he was a Marine and was about to receive his petition. As someone who hopes to join the military one day, I wish we had gotten into more specifics about his time serving, but I also knew I had a job to finish. I’m excited for what’s to come!