Congressional Visits Day 2011

Participants in the 2011 Congressional Visits Day share some of their experiences below.

 

Experiences

Jenny Rood, 3rd year PhD student, Biology

CVD was a great experience and a unique chance to learn about what really motivates our elected members of government. As a scientist who is interested in improving communication between the scientific community and the general public, I found it really neat to visit the Capitol with a group of like-minded students. Discussing our research with Representatives and staffers was an eye-opening experience for everybody - staffers learned about our work and in turn we learned about the kinds of research they were particularly interested in. I also enjoyed talking to other groups campaigning on the Hill that day and learning about their causes. But I definitely learned the most from the legislative correspondents about the intricacies of lawmaking and supporting science funding within a difficult political context.

David Healey, 1st year PhD student, Biology

Tunnel vision comes easily to scientists, I think. The vast, vast majority of your time is spent dealing with minute problems with this assay or that reaction. You forget who is paying you and what exactly they're paying you to do. It's hard to think of your project in the greater scheme of research, and even harder to think of research itself in the greater scheme of human activity. That was the power of CVD for me: in order to connect with lawmakers and staff I had to step back and ask myself "what exactly am I doing, and why do people care?" Who funds my research, and what do they want out of it? And whenever I explained the medical goals of my research, they all responded the same. "Wow! I hope that works! That's so important! That's so fantastic!" Huh. Now that you mention it, I guess it is.

Ross Collins, 1st year MS student, Technology and Policy

As a student in the Technology and Policy program at MIT, I've developed an appreciation for the larger social and political implications of scientific pursuits and technological advances. I very much enjoyed Congressional Visits Day because I got the opportunity to communicate some of these implications to policymakers on the hill. Specifically, we were advocating that current allocations to science and engineering funding be maintained at 2010 levels. Condensing complex research problems into manageable sound bytes that Congressmen and staffers could digest was challenging, but ultimately a great exercise in efficiently communicating the economic worth of scientific research, a particularly pertinent issue in light of the 2011 proposed budget cuts. And also the energy on the hill was really fun to be a part of. Walking into and out of various congressional offices, back and forth across the Senate and House, and witnessing all of the fast-paced interactions between people was definitely inspiring.

Nicholas Macfarlane, 1st year PhD student, MIT/WHOI Program in Biological Oceanography

The SPI Bootcamp and Congressional Visits Day have been some of the highlights of my year. It was an amazing experience to be walking through the Capitol, meeting with people making decisions at a very real crisis point for this country. It's tragic, that funding for science and innovation seems to have become a partisan issue, and in the context of slashing budgets, it was essential that policy-makers heard from people who could connect the dots between money spent on R &D and jobs created. My favorite meetings were the more combative ones with tea-party candidates. CVD was part of a larger delegation of scientists from all over the country, but the briefings and preparation that we got through SPI and MIT's Washington, D.C. office were a head and shoulders above anything else provided. I left feeling energized, informed-- a little more cynical-- and thinking that this was by far the most important thing I could have been doing.

Jennifer Milne, 1st year SM student, Mechanical Engineering

As an International student, CVD was a great opportunity to understand the US political system and inevitably led me to reflect on policy making in my home country. I had previously formed the opinion that policy-makers just were not responding to proposals from engineering and science intuitions due to a fundamental disconnect between them. It was reassuring then, to have met with some staffers who were either very receptive to, or fully aware of, the importance of engineering and science. I got an insight into the day to day interactions taking place on Capitol Hill and it was humbling to realize just how reactive politics is, and the overwhelming range of issues constantly on the table. Contrary to my original stance, I now see that scientists and engineers are also accountable for this disconnect if they are unwilling to engage in the political issues affecting them, and continue to poorly communicate the importance of their work outside of academia.

Nathaniel Schafheimer, 3rd year PhD student, Biology

I participated in SPI's trip to CVD because I wanted to be more aware, as a scientist, of the way decisions affecting vast swaths of research and grant dollars were made by elected officials without a formal science background. In this, CVD was enormously instructive. In Washington, we met with MIT alumni who opened our eyes to the multitude of policy and consulting related opportunities in government available to applicants with academic science training. MIT's Washington, D.C. office was immensely helpful, giving us a crash course on translating our personal research experiences into digestible and persuasive stories for legislative assistants. The main event, a day of meetings with staffers and members of the House and Senate, was the most educational. Hearing the political concerns of staffers, the partisan pageantry and careful language that members have to play with, showed me that for good science policy decisions to be made, it isn't enough to simply stand on firm scientific ground. To be persuasive and successful, the science must be understandable and relatable, and must be combined with the appropriate politics, the right argument for the moment. The understanding I've gained from CVD will undoubtedly be of great value in my future career decisions.

Christina Silcox, PhD student, Health Sciences and Technology

Preparing for and participating in Congressional Visit Days was fascinating. I'm interested in both politics and policy development, and meeting Congressional staffers and hearing their thoughts on how the two were going to be interacting in their Congressperson's decisions was eye opening. A couple of meetings were disappointing, as staffers used basic talking points and didn't seem to listen to what we were saying. Most visits were more open and freewheeling, and the best meetings were with staffers who pushed back on our thoughts and brought up points I hadn't thought of. All were educational in valuable ways as even the less successful meetings helped me think about how to present my thoughts, arguments, and research more clearly and interestingly. Also, being in the Congressional buildings themselves really gives a sense of perspective. Seeing the sheer number of people coming to speak with their representatives really brings home how many balls those representatives have up in the air all the time. We, as scientists, were not asking for a lot of money, and neither was the next person who was coming in to talk to them, but it all adds up and figuring out the order of prioritization is extremely difficult. It's easy to become cynical about government, but it's a difficult job. I hope our information helped make it a little easier.

Hiro Miyake, 4th year PhD student, Physics

Our research matters. Not just for academic purposes, but also for the economic well-being of society. That is one thing that I have come to appreciate through CVD; through discussions among the participants, the science communication workshop at the Union of Concerned Scientists, talks by Bill Bonvillian, and talking about our research to Senators, Congressmen, and staffers on Capitol Hill. As graduate students, we often tend to lose the big picture and get trapped in our little corner of the universe, whether it's genetics or materials science. But by thinking about how to communicate my work to people with little knowledge of what I do, I am reminded of the wide-ranging implications of our research work, both technologically as well as societally. CVD is an eye-opening experience.

Upcoming Events

Updated March 17, 2013

March 12-13, 2013
Congressional Visits Day
Washington, D.C.

March 18, 2013
SPI Monthly meeting
2-142
SPI business at 5:30 PM, discussion at 6 PM

March 22, 2013
Lunch with Dr. Bina Venkataraman
Director of Global Policy Initiatives, Broad Institute
12-1 pm
RSVP to spi-lunch@mit.edu for room location

April 8, 2013
SPI Monthly meeting
2-142
SPI business at 5:30 PM, discussion at 6 PM

May 13, 2013
SPI Monthly meeting
2-142
SPI business at 5:30 PM, discussion at 6 PM

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