It’s an opportunity GW Hill staffer wannabes dream about – turning a congressional internship into a full-time job after graduation.
And graduating senior Dan Sadlosky is doing it, trading up from staff assistant to legislative aide for Rep. Steve Scalise, R-LA.
Sadlosky started working for Scalise during his sophomore year soon after the congressman won a special election to fill Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal’s old seat. He has been working for Scalise ever since – part time during the school year and full time during the summer.
“I never thought I would be in the situation I am today or that the summer before my junior year I would already be hired staff for a congressman,” said Sadlosky, an international affairs and political science double major.
In the role, Sadlosky primarily handles requests that come through from state and local governments. Last summer he also took a trip down to Louisiana to meet with people the office had secured project funding for.
Coming up on the end of his time at GW, Scalise’s office asked if he wanted to stay on.
The experience working for a Republican congressman has been a far cry from growing up in a mostly liberal community back home.
“Back in Connecticut there weren’t very many Republicans,” Sadlosky said. The first time he attended a College Republican event at GW, he said he had never seen so many conservatives together at the same time.
He has served on the CRs executive board for the last three years, as treasurer, vice chairman and executive director, and has been there during both Republican and Democratic control of the White House.
“It had been defense but now we were on offense,” Sadlosky said of President Obama’s election and the Republicans losing the White House.
“Election night, everyone was running to the White House, and we ran down to the White House too,” Sadlosky said. “Well, we didn’t quite run down,” he amended.
Instead, Sadlosky said he and his group of fellow CRs were there “in solidarity” with President Bush.
“We grabbed Bush-Cheney signs and W signs and found our own place in Lafayette Park,” Sadlosky said. “[But] we definitely knew to keep our distance.”
