PACT Reflection 2

Bridget Quigley
5/29/18, 6:00pm
Scott Ammon
Eshoo.SAB@mail.house.gov

The students on the advisory board attended meetings twice a month in order to give and receive feedback about our developing policy papers. Each student reviewed approximately 5 papers per meeting, and our finished drafts were officially reviewed and edited by members of Congresswoman Eshoo's board in her Washington, D.C. office.

I really appreciated all of the feedback, especially from her assistants in Washington, D.C. because it felt as though my policy paper was truly going to be valued and appreciated by the Congresswoman, and not simply a project that she would not pay any attention to.

I continued to work on my solution, pulling statistics about mass deportation from the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement fiscal year studies. By the time I finalized my proposal, I was urging the Congresswoman to work with the national government to devise a system in which adult undocumented immigrants could earn citizenship and permanent residency by providing proof of a clean criminal record, steady employment and income, and other necessary requirements.

Finally, the day of the presentation had arrived. As nervous as I was about the Congresswoman reviewing my policy paper as I recited my speech, I was thrilled that she would finally be able to hear the product of my months of hard work and research.

After speaking, I was delighted to hear the Congresswoman tell me that she absolutely loved my proposal, and that she agreed that the government needed a system such as the one I suggested. She told me that she had been working on a similar project with the government, and had high hopes for its success.

The Congresswoman's positive reaction to my proposal was more than I could have asked for. Not only was I happy that she approved of my ideas, but that she was currently working on something similar and would try to implement some of my ideas into her project was amazing. I felt as though my work was truly making an impact on a national level, and hopefully someday soon it will be able to help adult undocumented immigrants across the country gain citizenship and permanent residency. I felt like I was not just a student working on a project, this experience actually enabled me to make a change on a national level, and help those in desperate need.