Luther College junior Sekora interns with Iowa Senate Democrats

Luther College junior Alex Sekora of Denmark, Wisconsin, served as a summer communications intern for the Iowa Senate Democrats in Des Moines.

Sekora, son of Jim and Carole Sekora, graduated from Denmark High School in 2015. He plans to graduate from Luther in 2019 with majors in political science and management.

As an intern, Sekora wrote press releases and ran social media accounts for the Senate Democrats and for each of the Democratic State senators. He also created content, and recorded and produced videos for senators and other state officials. Sekora grew to appreciate how much work goes into communication. “A lot of work is put into getting just the right wording for a Facebook post or press release, more work than I thought went into it before my internship,” he said.

In addition to Sekora’s interactions with Democratic staff and senators, he also met members of the Legislative Services Agency and Executive Branch staff. He feels that the political and communications experience he garnered this summer affirm his political aspirations and future career plans.

Sekora was surprised by “how much work goes into making our political process run smoothly. ” There is a huge amount of behind the scenes work that goes into research and actually writing the bills, which isn’t the stuff you see on television. Many people work long hours, sometimes around the clock if the Senate goes into overnight debate, in order for the Senate to function properly,” Sekora said.

Approximately 10 percent of Luther students take an internship for academic credit each academic year. The Luther College Career Center assists students with their internship search through resume preparation, networking, online internship searches, career fairs, on-campus interviewing, and connecting the student to alumni through the college’s Alumni Internship Program. Students also meet with a faculty adviser prior to the internship to create an internship learning plan that includes learning goals and assessment benchmarks.

An internship work supervisor assists in the process by writing an evaluation of the student at the end of the internship. Students also complete a self-reflection form to help finalize the learning experience.

A national liberal arts college with an enrollment of 2,050, Luther offers an academic curriculum that leads to the Bachelor of Arts degree in more than 60 majors and pre-professional programs. For more information about Luther visit the college’s website: http://www.luther.edu.