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From Wyo. to D.C., Enzi aides adapt |
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By The Hill Staff
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Posted: 09/27/05 12:00 AM [ET] |
When Sarah Simpson, 25, isn’t camping in the mountains, she serves as research assistant for Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.).
Simpson covers issues ranging from the budget to technology. While a communications major at the University of Wyoming, Simpson was a College Republican who volunteered for campaigns. After working in the private sector, Simpson campaigned for Sen. John Thune’s (R-S.D.) Senate campaign, having grown up in South Dakota, just a few miles from the Wyoming border. The Thune campaigning encouraged her to step out of her box and head for Capitol Hill.
Working for Enzi has been fulfilling, Simpson said. He has a “great head on his shoulders,” she said.
Simpson likes to go camping and recently spent some time in Virginia along the Potomac. “Out west you go 10 minutes and you can camp,” she said. “Here you have to drive a bit.”
Alana Weinstein, 30, is the new scheduler in Enzi’s office. She said she never anticipated that the job would happen.
“There was a job opening, and I just got lucky,” she said. Weinstein schedules events for the Wyoming and Washington offices.
Bells will ring for Weinstein in April, when she gets married. A graduate of the University of Delaware, Weinstein corrects her future husband on the school’s mascot: “They’re the fighting blue hens, not the mud hens.” As for the future, she said that she loves her job and “if it brings other things, that’s great.”
Anne Hedderman, 23, is the new staff assistant and intern coordinator. She has eclectic taste in music and enjoys the live music scene in D.C. She has attended concerts of hip-hop, bluegrass and classical music. If she isn’t listening to music, Hedderman said, she is riding her bike a lot and “checking out the sights.”
After graduating from the University of Wyoming, Hedderman found an entry-level position in Enzi’s office. The legislative process has always intrigued her. “I wanted to come out and be a part of it,” she said.
She also wanted to leave the “outdoor space and sparsely populated Wyoming” for the people and energy of Washington. “It has more cultural experiences,” she said. Nonetheless, she likes representing residents of Wyoming and plans to possibly teach U.S. history when she returns.
Joe Hicks, 23, staff assistant and tour coordinator for Enzi, is a big sports fan. Since seeing a few games, Hick said, he’s “caught up with Nationals fever and the Redskins.”
Hicks graduated from Montana State University with a bachelor’s degree in secondary education, specializing in social studies. While working for the College Honor Society in D.C., Hicks said, “a position opened up” at Enzi’s office. The opportunity to pursue an interest in history and government excited him. And that interest “will help me teach in the future,” Hicks said. |
