Calvin Junior Completes White House Internship

June 7, 2006 == MEDIA ADVISORY

A Calvin junior spent the spring 2006 semester working as an intern in the
nation's most famous white house.

Now Eric Beach, a 20-year old native of Ann Arbor, Michigan, is regularly
asked how much the real West Wing resembles its television counterpart.

"I can't say because I never watched The West Wing," he says laughing. "I
think I'm going to have to watch it."

Approximately 100 interns are chosen each spring, summer and fall for the
White House Internship Program.

The interns, who serve without pay, work in a White House office, attend
lectures, volunteer at special events, participate in tours and contribute to a
community service project in the Washington, D.C. area.

Beach, a business and communications major, spent January through May working
for the White House on an analysis of social service spending.

"He was instrumental in pulling new forms of data into their database because
of his knowledge of computers," says Margaret Edgell, Beach's advisor and a
Calvin professor of business who spent nine years in Washington at the U.S.
Department of the Treasury working on international trade finance policy. "I
can say from my experience that often a roadblock to policy decisions is
failure to get the effective, updated, accurate data."

Some of Beach's work made its way into a presidential speech, and he met
President Bush on several occasions.

Beach was in Washington through the nomination of a new Supreme Court Justice,
several administration changes and Katrina hearings, among other events.

For the full story see
http://www.calvin.edu/news/releases/2005_06/white_house.htm

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Received on Wed Jun 7 00:45:32 2006