Belated blog updating

First, I have to say there is a reason why I am writing this on Thanksgiving morning. Today is exactly one month from the day the fellowship started, and frankly it has been a total blur. Between the grueling yet exciting Assembly Fellows program, the homework assignments, preparing for more than a dozen interviews, and the extensive social calendar of and engaged Fellow there has been little time to reflect on the experiences let alone write them down. Well I am doing it now (with the aid of some Thanksgiving treats) and will try to be better about more contemporaneous updates in the future.
Okay the big news: I was placed in Assemblymember Anthony Portantino’s (D-Pasadena) office. Assemblymember Portantino has a friendly and gregarious personality and known to be a hard worker and a serious and sincere public servant. He also has an intelligent and experienced staff that I found to be warm, inviting and committed to helping the residents of the 44th Assembly district and California as a whole. I am really happy I was placed there. There is a complex placement process that is similar to medical residency matching that leaves Fellows and offices in the dark for a couple of days about who will end up where. This office was my first choice, so I am really excited. After the Thanksgiving holiday we have another week of class before we report to our offices and start working as full time staffers. I am excited to get to work!
So, about the experience. It has been exhilarating . I will do a week by week account that hopefully reflects the actual experience of an Assembly Fellow. It is a fantastic program and I recommend it to anyone that is interested in learning more about how the State of California works.

Week One:
The Assembly Fellows met for dinner the Sunday night prior to the beginning of the program and everybody seemed to get along well. Consuelo Hernandez, the program’s coordinator, hosted it at her house and it was great. We also met Professor Wadle’ again, the programs’ academic advisor, after initially meeting him during the Fellows interview. During the interviews, I have been told, the program’s selection committee is looking for personalities that can get along with everyone (especially with people with different political perspectives). So it was not an accident that we all were able to have a good time despite having disparate political opinions.
Week one had a fair amount of bureaucratic/business elements (getting capital IDs, taking mandated ethics classes, payroll, benefits, etc.), and a lot of getting to know everyone exercises. We also got lots of useful advice and kudos from former fellows, program administrators, and high-ranking Assembly staffers. We also started getting wooed directly by Assemblymembers (with lunch and all) that want to have a fellow in their offices. The flattery is nice of course, but a lot of us feel so green that we start getting worried if we can live up to the expectations. We started our academic seminars and got our first homework assignment. We were assigned partners and a bill to research and then we read legislative analysts and interviewed people who took part in the bill’s life. In my case, I was assigned to work on Assembly Bill 9: the Ignition Interlock Device. This is basically a breathalyzer that is put in people’s cars after they are convicted of DUIs that they have to blow in to for their car to turn on. We got access to the author’s (Feuer D-Los Angeles) Chief of Staff and were able to interview her for half an hour. It was great and she was so helpful.
There is also tons of teambuilding during the program. During the first week we went to the Sacramento State Aquatic Center with all the fellows from the other program. We did mostly water races and had a blast. We also had a reception at a local bar with former fellows. Some of the former fellows worked still worked in the Legislature and were actively courting us. Again flattering, yet nerve-wracking. There is definitely a community of former fellows that look out for one another and especially for new fellows. It is a built-in, exclusive network that is one of the best parts of the program.
Week one was great, and I was so pooped by Saturday. We had so much fun and I learned a ton.