Alum Bulletin

See what past PLEN students are doing now!

Have an update to share? Email us at plen@plen.org.

Spring 2011

    Samantha Rosen (Women & Congress ’11) is interning for D.C. Public Schools this summer as part of the Urban Education Leaders Program, which allows students the opportunity to work on education policy projects.
    Antionetta Kelley (Women & Law ’10) is spending the summer interning on Capitol Hill for Senator John Kerry.

    Amber Queen (Women & Sci-Tech ’11) is interning with the Mautner Project after meeting the Executive Director at PLEN’s Women & Science/Technology Seminar in January.
    Anna Cielinski (Women & Congress ’04) is pursuing a Masters of Public Policy at Georgetown University and working this summer for the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Subcommittee on Employment and Workplace Safety.
    Rellani Ogumoro (Summer Internship ’10) graduated Summa Cum Laude from Eastern Oregon University and spoke to her class at commencement as a 2011 President’s Scholar and Truman Scholar.

Winter 2011

    Cathy Guo (Summer Internship ’10, Public Policy ’11) will be interning for NBC Universal in New York City this semester in the NBC News Marketing Department.
    Jennifer Urban (Law ’09) spent last spring semester studying abroad in Sydney, Australia. In her travels she had the opportunity to visit Bali, Indonesia and Queenstown, New Zealand.


    Megan Young (Law ’09) followed up her participation in PLEN’s Women, Law & Public Policy Seminar with the decision to attend the Earle Mack School of Law at Drexel University in Philadelphia, where she just completed her first semester. Says Megan, “The PLEN program was so exciting and informative, and it truly pushed me forward in my desire to attend law school.”

    Kelly Biggs was featured as PLEN’s spotlight alum in the Winter 2011 Newsletter. Biggs, a student from our newest member school Hobart and William Smith Colleges, won the Sutherland Law Scholarship allowing her to participate in last November’s Women, Law & Public Policy Seminar. Kelly talks about how the program opened her eyes to new opportunities and even inspired her to want to move to D.C. after graduation:

    My experience at PLEN’s Women, Law and Public Policy Seminar encompassed a lot of “firsts” for me:  My first time in Washington, D.C., my school’s first conference as members of the PLEN community, and my first time experiencing the network of women in public leadership in the heart of our nation’s capital. For me, PLEN provided the opportunity to get a behind-the- scenes look at careers that I was both interested in, and some that were not on my radar screen, and to ask questions about what opportunities there were in each of these sectors. This particular seminar allowed us to see a really diverse group of job opportunities as well as experiences—from women who worked in the non-profit sector, to lobbying firms, to law clerks, to women who had not attended law school and still successfully managed to make it in the public policy arena.  I would strongly encourage anyone who was even slightly interested in this area of public policy or law to attend this conference; it definitely opened my eyes to a lot of different possibilities that are available in D.C., and perhaps most importantly, made it very clear that there is not just one path to becoming successful in public policy or law. I now have plans to move to Washington, D.C. after I graduate in May, and hope that the connections that I made at PLEN can help me navigate my way to an internship or career opportunity.


Fall 2010


    Leah Calvo     (Public Policy ’09) was hired as Deputy Scheduler for Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) in May.  “My experience meeting Hill Staffers during PLEN had a tangible positive impact on my future here,” said Calvo.
    Kelsey Moran (International Policy ’10) recently spent a month in rural Losho, Kenya volunteering at a clinic and tutoring students in English.  In the evenings, she also mentored a 4th grade female student. 

    “In Kenya, all the standardized national exams are given in English, though English is scarcely and poorly taught in schools,” said Moran.

    Rachel Kriegsman (Public Policy ’10) began as Campaign Associate of Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families at the Environmental Health Fund. She had previously volunteered in the environmental health field both inside the U.S. and abroad, with a focus on sustainable agriculture and food safety.
    Danielle Campbell (Public Policy ’10) spent the summer interning with the U.S. Department of Education in the Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development.  She is now back at the University of Virginia to finish the last year of her Masters in Public Policy program.

    Lindsey Santamaria (Congress ’10) just completed an internship campaigning and fundraising for Rep. Rodney P. Frelinghuysen (R-NJ).  Working directly with the Campaign Manager, Santamaria had the opportunity to attend political events and meet prominent figures in New Jersey’s 11th district, including New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.
    Alexis Carter (International Policy ’10) spent the summer interning at the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs.  Her duties included organizing public diplomacy activities for college students and researching cultural, political and economic trends in the East Asia-Pacific region.  Currently, Alexis is studying abroad in Shanghai, China for her fall semester at Spelman College.
    Yasmine Evans (Congress ’10) just wrapped up a summer internship with House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD).
    PLEN featured Nina Schwartz (Public Policy ’08) in its inaugural Fall 2010 eNewsletter to talk about how her experience as a PLEN student helped her with everything from salary negotiations to landing her current job at Green Media Toolshed:


    “I couldn’t have asked for a better start to my D.C. career than by attending PLEN’s Women in Public Policy seminar. The seminar helped me successfully transition from my internship at National Audubon Society to a full time job at Green Media Toolshed (GMT) in March of that year. My seminar advisor helped me negotiate my salary and coached me on many professional skills that young women need as they begin their careers. I am still working at Green Media Toolshed as the Membership Coordinator, where I help environmental advocacy groups build targeted media lists and use the outreach resources in GMT. My career goals are in environmental policy and communication, and I am hoping to go back to graduate school in a few years to pursue this path. The skills I learned in the seminar have helped me greatly throughout these past two and a half years, and I look forward to staying connected with PLEN in the future.”