A (Zoom) Call to Public Service: My Year as a Congressional Fellow

Abstract

For the past year, Malara had the privilege to serve as the 2020-2021 TMS/MRS Congressional Science and Engineering Fellow in the office of US Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio. While she experienced most of her fellowship virtually, it was still eventful to say the least. When she accepted the position in Mar 2020, COV1D-19 closures had just begun, and she never imagined what all would unfold. During her fellowship, she had a front row seat to a change in administration, a flip in Senate control, the sprint to fill the seat of the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a global pandemic, an economic crisis, and a violent insurrection in Capitol. Unprecedented--the word of the year. Her life experiences shape who she is, and she likely could never put on paper all the ways she grown through this fellowship.