JACKSON, Tenn. — Aug. 15, 2023 — For Union University sophomore Jack Brady, a summer internship with Mike Pence gave him an inside look at U.S. politics at the highest level.
Pence, the former U.S. vice president, runs Advancing American Freedom, a nonprofit policy organization in Washington, D.C. Brady read Pence’s book last fall, looked into the organization and discovered it had an internship program. He applied, interviewed a couple of times and was offered the position.
“I’ve had different experiences like getting to meet the vice president and working with his team on some of his speeches and his events that he’s done since he’s been in town,” Brady said. “Those are really cool experiences.”
Brady did “a little bit of everything” during his summer internship.
“That literally means anything,” Brady said. “I’ve done everything from unjamming copiers and stuffing envelopes to writing op-eds and memos.”
In June, Pence was in Washington to speak at the Faith and Freedom Coalition Conference, and Brady accompanied the vice president backstage. He heard several big-time GOP candidates speak at the event, including Ron DeSantis, Donald Trump, Chris Christie, Tim Scott and others.
The next day, Pence spoke at the Lincoln Memorial on the anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision that struck down Roe v. Wade.
“It was a neat experience to be there with him in a place that has so much history, on a day that’s so historic, especially when he was so influential in nominating those judges to overturn Roe v. Wade,” Brady said.
Through his experience in Washington, Brady has learned that there’s more to politics than meets the public eye. So much goes on behind the scenes than the normal citizen realizes, he said, and so many different groups and individuals have voices in the process.
His education at Union, Brady said, has helped him see how he can meet the needs he has encountered through his experience.
“Even just walking down the street, you can really see the brokenness and lostness in the world and see that we need people to advance the work of God’s kingdom and bring people to him,” he said. “I think having a Christian education is very important in that – thinking through different issues, thinking through how we live our lives. And you can build a worldview around that.”