Alumni Update – Bethany Brunner (WFA Internship)

2014 Bay City Christian School graduate Bethany Brunner has accepted a paid internship with the Wisconsin Family Action in Madison. Bethany is “extremely excited” for this internship, “I feel like this is just going to be one of the things that launches me into my future career after graduation. It’s very convenient to do this internship while I’m in school, especially since it’s paid. I can afford to do this!”

The Wisconsin Family Action or WFA works along with Wisconsin Family Council to advance Christian principles and values in Wisconsin in many ways, including legislatively at the state capital. Bethany, a sophomore at Maranatha Baptist University in Watertown, can’t wait to build her political and professional experience, as well as make a difference here in Wisconsin. “It’s going to expose me to a lot of different aspects of politics. It’s not just focusing on one thing.”

 

As a marketing major with a concentration in organizational leadership, Bethany will be able to implement many of the things she’s learning right now in her college classes and even receive college credit for her internship. Some of her responsibilities include: event planning and coordination, legislative research, generating publishable materials and content for the WFA website, newsletters, and flyers, as well as working with the social media director to augment ongoing social media efforts. Bethany sees it as a great opportunity to expand her skills, see where her true interests lie, and do some networking. “My boss Julianne, has a lot of legislative meetings at the capital. It’s great to meet a lot of different people at the capital and be able to build relationships and network for a possible future job.”

She enjoyed touring the capital, seeing how everything works in Madison, and listening to many of the women speakers talk about ways they were making a difference in politics. It was also here that she first met Julianne Appling, the president of Wisconsin Family Action. Appling advised her on ways to get started in politics, which led her to take a summer job with the Republican party of Wisconsin during the last election and later apply for the WFA internship.

Bethany believes the education she received at Bay City really prepared her for college and for this internship. “My history classes, they were so interesting. Also through Bay City I was able to apply for the YLTC, Youth Legislative Training Conference, in Washington D.C… I had to write an essay about why I wanted to go and my application was selected.” Only two students in each state were chosen to be a part of the program. Bethany spent a week in Washington D.C. listening to speakers and doing a mock senate. She says, “That’s where I decided I wanted to pursue politics!”

It wasn’t only her political opportunities through Bay City that have helped her advance her goals.

Bethany began her internship with the Wisconsin Family Action this month (January 2016). She says, “Depending on how this job goes, I can see myself wanting to stay in politics for a long time.”

 

(Updated 1-24-16)

FUN FACTS:

Alumni: a plural noun referring either to a group of male graduates or to a group of both male and female graduates

Alumnus: one male graduate

Alumna: one female graduate

Alumnae: a group of female graduates

– http://grammarist.com/usage/alumna-alumnae-alumni-alumnus/