Congressional Intern Diversity
Given that almost every Congressional staff career begins with an internship, the makeup of the three classes of interns each year can provide clues into the future Capitol Hill workforce.
Since Fall 2021, POPVOX Foundation—in partnership with the organizations of the First Branch Intern Project—has hosted “Internapalooza,” one of the only intern orientation and welcome events open to all incoming Capitol Hill interns. One unexpected benefit of these events has been the opportunity to learn more about the intern classes of the past few years through what is now one of the longest-running (nonscientific) data sets on who interns for Congress.
In the context of the Supreme Court’s recent decisions in Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. (SFAI) v. Harvard and SFAI v. University of North Carolina (UNC), and related discussions, we decided to examine the data and share aggregated data about the interns who registered for the seven prior Internapalooza events.
As always, a big caveat: while the Internapalooza dataset is one of the most comprehensive on Congressional interns, it still represents a self-selected sample and is not comprehensive or scientific.
Data from the last two years show significant racial and ethnic diversity in Congressional intern classes. While demographic statistics are complex and people often identify with more than one category, an average of 50% of each intern class since Fall 2021 self identified as a member of a racial or ethnic minority, slightly higher than 48.4% national average for college students, but much higher than current congressional staff. A 2022 Joint Center report found that only 18% of top House staff were people of color, and the 2021 House Compensation and Diversity Study found that 30.7% of respondents were an racial or ethnic minority.
Three groups are overrepresented among Congressional interns:
Students at private universities
In the U.S., 27% of all college students attend private colleges or universities. Across the six intern orientation events, an average of 43.65% of each intern class were attendees of private post-secondary schools.Students from affluent families
In the last year, across the past four intern orientation events, an average of 21.7% of each intern class reported growing up in a home with an annual total income of over $200,000, surpassing the national average of 16% among college students.Students from households with college and graduate degrees
Across all events, an average of 47.58% of each congressional intern class reported at least one parent having earned a graduate degree and an average of 80.37% of each intern class reported having at least one parent with a college degree. This is significantly higher than the national average of 63% of college students with at least one parent having a college degree as of 2016.
The single greatest barrier reported by Internapalooza attendees was the cost of living in DC during a congressional internship. Across six congressional intern classes dating from the Fall of 2021 to the Summer of 2023, an average of 60.85% of registrants reported that the ability to afford moving costs or the cost of living in DC was a significant barrier they encountered on their way to becoming interns. Cost is the most widely reported barrier by a significant margin.
Bipartisan efforts to ensure that congressional interns are paid appear to be impacting these perceptions. On average, 62.5% of Internapalooza attendees over the past two years have reported receiving a stipend from their employing office. 12.5% receive support from an outside organization and 15% receive monetary support from their school, also reducing the financial burden placed on interns. However, 14.33% still rely on financial support from family and friends and 18.17% must draw from their personal savings.
Awareness and imposter syndrome were also reported as barriers interns overcame. An average of 14.50% of attendees at each Internapalooza session cited a lack of awareness and an average of 32.67% of attendees reported not feeling qualified enough to apply as barriers they personally overcame on their way to a Congressional internship. The good news is that despite these barriers, those students did find their way to Capitol Hill and many have already gone on to be staffers.
In order to continue welcoming interns that reflect the diversity of America and bring perspectives and experience from the districts and states Members represent, offices may want to consider increasing visibility of intern position postings at local colleges and universities; recruiting locally (especially for district and state office internship positions), encouraging previous interns and staffers to share their own experiences, and sharing information about the future career opportunities that Congressional internship experience can open. And for the incoming Fall 2023 class of interns, make sure to save the date (September 11) and encourage them to register for Internapalooza!
