CHIP Program Serves NWU Students Well

How many times have ordinary citizens complained that they have no say on the affairs of the government? Or that Washington seems so aloof and elitist that the common man has no chance of acceptance or understanding among the ivory pillars and storied history of the nation’s capital and the esoteric traditions that permeate its government?

That idea no longer holds true for NWU students, who, for eight years, have had the chance to go to Washington D.C. to work in departments of their interest through the Capitol Hill Internship Program, or CHIP.

Since 2001, NWU students have had the opportunity of going to Washington D.C. to do internships in a variety of high-powered government agencies.

Dr. Kelly Eaton, chair of the Political Science Department, was on the ground floor at the launching of the project. Dr. Eaton noted that “NWU students had been going on a ‘Washington semester’ since the 1950s,” but by the late 1990s, the professors of the Political Science Department had decided that a better, more efficient program could be crafted.

They had many criticisms of the old program. Among them, the old program was more expensive, less focused on the “internship” experience versus didactic learning, and located (for the most part) further from Capitol Hill, in suburban Washington D.C.

Today, NWU students involved in the program pay regular tuition, live in a special house on Capitol Hill called the “CHIP house,” and spend most of their time with activities directly relevant to their internships.

Inclusion in the CHIP program is not limited to any major because, according to Dr. Eaton, “internships in all disciplines can be arranged-science, art, English, social work, business, history, religion, etc.”

Such an internship is infinitely helpful to students wishing to apply to graduate school or win prestige scholarships such as the Rhodes, Truman, Boren, or Fulbright Scholarships, for all of which Dr. Eaton is the contact person on campus.

Dr. Eaton summed up the value of the CHIP experience by saying, “It helps students to figure out what career they want and helps them establish a network in Washington that can be very useful once graduation arrives.”