Jan Neumann finds order within chaos in Washington

Neumann drafted church opinion and sent letters to congressmen.

By Angela Case

Published Jan. 26, 2010

While many MU students were glancing at the headlines on their way to class or catching sound bytes on television during the health care debates last fall, graduate student Jan Neumann was in the middle of the action.

From August to December 2009, Neumann worked in Washington as an intern for the Episcopal Church's Office of Government Relations.

Neumann, who graduated in December 2008 with a bachelor's degree in business administration and is seeking a masters in public health, stumbled into the internship accidentally.

She did not know the office existed until she visited Washington during spring break last year. The visit was part of a "whirlwind tour of the northeast" with Episcopal Campus Ministry at MU, of which she has been an active member of since her freshman year.

Neumann said applying for the internship wasn't part of any long-term plan.

"It was kind of a spur-of-the-moment thing," she said. "I just applied and decided to see what would happen."

As the only intern for the office, Neumann did "a lot of basic intern stuff," such as mailing postcard packets and answering phones. In addition, she worked on several writing projects, such as advocacy alerts sent out by e-mail.

"Whenever a legislative issue came up on Capitol Hill that was of importance to the church, we would put together a statement about how the church feels about that and we would send it out to the grassroots network," she said. "There would be an option to click on a prewritten letter to Congress and have that sent off by e-mail."

Neumann wrote the letter to Congress about the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, a bill that would prevent workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.

"It was really cool because since I'm a member of the grassroots network, I sent my congressman and two senators a letter that I had written," she said. "That was a really cool experience for me."

Neumann also wrote a newsletter article providing information about health care reform, which she said was the biggest issue while she was in Washington.

Although the Office of Government Relations participates in political advocacy, Neumann avoids the term lobbying because of the negative connotations it can carry.

"The term lobbyists is kind of a scarlet L," she said. "I would describe what the church organizations are doing as something different. I mean, it's political advocacy, but I've seen a lot of positive things and it's made me very hopeful and it's really inspired me."

The office's grassroots coordinator, Mary Getz, said in an e-mail Neumann was always ready to take on a new project.

"Jan was fabulous because she was always up to any task," Getz said. "She was ready to ask questions, learn new skills and get the job done."

Neumann did more than write during her internship.

"She created order out of chaos when it was time to archive some of our office's historical records," Getz said. "This was a truly miraculous feat."

Here in Columbia, fellow ECM member and graduate student Nicole Barkley said Neumann was someone the group could always count on to organize and attend events.

"She's definitely somebody who's got a huge heart and wants to make an impact in the world," Barkley said. "She's not going to sit back and watch it turn."

Neumann said the internship enhanced her education though she was not in school. In addition to becoming more educated about a variety of social justice issues, she learned a few life lessons as well.

"It's been very interesting trying to deal with lots of different people and trying to take in lots of different viewpoints," she said. "I didn't know I could learn so much about so many different things in such a short period of time. I feel really lucky."