Sanders recruits intern at GMC

By William Shoemaker

Junior Green Mountain College student Shannon Bonney has begun working as one of four college interns for Vermont Congressman Bernie Sanders, a job she took as a result of her recent interest in political affairs and her involvement with politically-oriented professors Ron Steffens and Steven Fesmire. “I’ve been interested in politics for awhile, and have also been fed up with the government for quite some time,” Shannon said, “but this just seemed like too good an opportunity for Green Mountain College. I couldn’t pass it up.”

Shannon’s duties in the position include surveying Green Mountain College students about mainstream political issues like taxes, healthcare, and morality, and then publishing a newsletter to the student body providing the survey results. Funded by the Congressional Office in Burlington, Shannon’s job is mainly to use her resources to provide the congressman with information that will allow him to better represent his constituents. Bernie is a much-beloved Independent congressman in Vermont who has long stood for increased health care and social programs while strongly advocating women’s and minority rights.

An exercise in bureaucracy, Shannon’s job has her spending several hours a week sifting through mounds of paperwork and dealing with policies designed to ensure that she isn’t using federal funds to do anything but inform Bernie of his voters’ views. “You have to waste a lot of paper and time to get anything done,” Shannon said, “but it’s a good experience, and I’m getting connected to local-level politics and getting Green Mountain College talked about within the state government.

One of the perks of Shannon’s unpaid internship is a chance to meet the congressman, who seemed primarily interested in the level of awareness students had about politics in general. “We talked mostly about the age-old myth that students don’t know what’s going on and aren’t active,” Shannon said, “and I just did my best to convince him otherwise.” Shannon, who met for about twenty minutes with Bernie, will also be planning a day for him to come speak at the college later this semester.

Never previously interested in serving in a public office, Shannon has found that the advantages of the small Vermont political scene have encouraged her to one day get even more involved. “The good thing about it is that on such a small scale, money isn’t such an obstacle that you can still be middle-class and get elected,” she said, “and you can be close enough to your constituents so that you can still feel empowered and get things done. It’s not that there aren’t drawbacks—I’ve encountered some sexism from some of the men in the Vermont political system—but I think this has inspired me so that, whatever community I’m in, I’ll run for some public office, just to do my part.”