European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - August 14, 1978, Darmstadt, Hesse                                The stars and stripes in a. Moil coli.5e kid. Who  in the nation s capital Alclo new York times n the midst of Senate watergate hearings.  m. Montoya the late new Mexico Democrat asked Gordon Strachan an aide to the White House chief of staff . Raheman. If he had any advice for Young people whom he said were dubious about Public service As a career. Strachan replied Well it May not be the Type o advice that you could look Back and want to give but my. Advice would be to stay  but apparently Many Young people Are not heeding Strachan s advice at least in Washington where the number of Young people applying for congressional internships has increased steadily in the last few years. This year there Are about 2,600 interns a 15 percent in. Crease Over last year. The interns mainly College students and recent radiates come to Washington to work during the for representatives senators committees groups such As the congressional badge thousands of others come to work Here in a variety of intern programs sponsored by government agencies newspapers embassies and Trade  Competition for the Low paying sometimes no pay Monca Staal jobs is stiff. Most of the interns receive 150$uo a week although Many Young people Volunteer for the experience. The desire to work in Washington is so Strong and the positions so few that Many people began Ino Juning about jobs for this summer As Early As last de Cember. Each office determines How Many interns it will hire and what they will do. Some of the offices have formal programs but most have the interns splitting their Tim Between routine clerical work and special projects. The experience can be beneficial not Only for he interns but also for the offices. The offices Benefit a great Deal a lot of menial work gets  said Elliot saltier an intern for rep. Bruce f. Capulo . I think i Benefi More than they Benefit going to hearings listen ing to Congress. We learn from being  Spitzer worked As a Volunteer for Caputo last  said that he did not think his politics had changed much As a result of working in the capital and that he found it difficult to Label himself a Democrat or a Republican. He prefers to consider himself a moderate  he said. Roger Pollak on the other hand grew up in washing ton and considers himself to be More politically oriented than most  works for the committee on education and labor and. As a resident of Washington has been exposed to government All of his life almost making me develop More of a social conscience he  grew up with the save the world ethic he said. My father is a civil rights lawyer. I grew up thinking had a responsibility to fix up some of the messed up things in , like most interns wants to work in Washington after he is graduated from Dartmouth College in 1981.but he is not completely satisfied with the Way things work on Capitol Hill. He said that he preferred committee work to politics and was not sure How valuable interns really were. It s Little questionable How really necessary they Are he said but some projects get done that Wwlfe otherwise get  some interns lamented the fact that there was Little Contact Between them and the congressmen for whom they worked. As rep. Richard a. Gephardt d-mo.,  s Tough to have interaction with interns. It s very difficult to have time with my staff much less the  did however take his interns to the House floor one Day to explain How things work. Sen. John g. Tower a Texas said that he this interns to lunch once or twice in the us to spend most of the office time with my i assistant Secretary press aide and chief  exception to the Small amount of. Interns and congressmen is in the office 4,Harrington, a mass. Harrington who Faion of basis with his interns said that he tried them informally every week or so to a viewpoint or an Issue facing  said that he tried to treat the intent i staff people adding. I do whatever i can there is no  As Susan Benda one of his current interns in this office they really try to use the i wants to take advantage of the Young a some pretty heavy responsibilities Are 1 said that she was studying the  and training act. " in his nine years in Congress mated he has used More than 1,m intern to flees. There is an enormous amount of Talent ism he said. It should be  he said that he was not worried that i rent 15 interns might get lost in the shuffle i most Are instinctively  he a1"proud that one of his former interns was i Gress in the fifth District of mass Chusett. A spokesman for the bipartisan com raw a group that organizes lectures and Fonn Aiji attributes much of the increase in their  of organized College intern p the spokesman also noted that Many