What do the following people have in common?

They all met Claire at an “event” in a 37th floor penthouse in downtown Minneapolis!  A few days before the event, the chair of the Political Science department at Macalester College asked if she could provide the name of a handful of students who might want to attend.  Claire was picked and got to meet Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton, Minnesota Senators Al Franken and Amy Klobuchar, Agriculture Secretary Vilsack, Iowa Congressional challenger Christi Vilsack, Former VP Mondale, and Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Ryback.

Claire enjoyed it immensely and in a debriefing with her professor the next day, she told Claire, “I’ve never seen a student work a room like you.”

The next day she received a call from the Governor’s office inviting her to interview in two days for an internship and by Friday she had the new internship.  Her schedule is now set for a bit – Spring semester she has the internship in the Governor’s Office and her work-study internship in the Children’s Museum.  She’s lucky to have two of her classes at night, so she has time during the day for these experiences.  This summer is also set, as she’ll be back in Secretary Vilsack’s office in DC as she was last summer.