Mason Lovell served as a congressional aide this summer, and although he is not pursuing a degree in law or political science, he found the experience to be enriching and fulfilling.
Lovell is a sophomore with a double-major in agribusiness and accounting from Greenville, Kentucky.
“I’ve always been interested and engaged with civics,” he said. “My mom served on the (Muhlenberg County) school board a while back, and my parents have campaigned before for political candidates. I’ve always been intrigued with it.”
Last fall, Lovell spent a good deal of time in his first semester as a college student searching for internships before he was accepted as an aide to U.S. Rep. Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.), who represents his hometown. Guthrie serves as chair of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, the oldest standing legislative committee in the House.
Lovell’s internship lasted four weeks, while most other internships last five weeks.
“About a week before I got the internship, I got an opportunity to work as a counselor for the NRECA’s (National Rural Electric Cooperative Association) Washington Youth Tour program in National Harbor, Maryland, so I was already going to be up in the D.C. area,” he said.
“(Guthrie’s office) looked at my schedule and they tried to figure out how to make it work. I had some other commitments late in July with UT Martin, and the way things worked out, they could only squeeze me in over a four-week period. They absolutely would have given me a five-week period – in fact, I would have loved to have worked for five weeks – but they looked at my schedule and how everything was tightened down, and they decided to make it a four-week work period.”
Lovell said he enjoyed his work, which included answering phone calls from constituents and others.
“Now, not every phone call is a nice one,” he said. “We had folks from all over the country calling in. Some would be nice, some wouldn’t, but what made that interesting was that I was the focal point of helping these people, whether they like Congressman Guthrie or not.
“I felt so patriotic about helping them express their First Amendment right. They may not have agreed with Congressman Guthrie, but at the end of the call, I still said, ‘Thank you for calling, and remember: This phone line belongs to you, the taxpayer, and you have the right to call it again.’ I really enjoyed that. I almost felt like I was empowering folks, even if they didn’t necessarily agree with me.”
Lovell said the experience went beyond being a helpful voice in a congressional office.
“It also taught me how to navigate situations where you might not necessarily agree with somebody, but you can absolutely be civil and allow them to call back again and encourage them to do so,” he said. “I felt good reminding them that despite our differences and disagreements, I still work for them and try to serve them every day.”
Lovell also helped to arrange Capitol Hill tours for visitors from the district, something he especially enjoyed.
Other responsibilities for Lovell during the internship included transcribing notes for policy meetings, organizing information for constituents and writing correspondence among other Congressional offices.
Lovell said he would like to “front-load” a lot his classes – take the major-required courses earlier than most students – and work toward his Master of Business Administration degree during his junior and senior years.
“My plan is to take a bunch of credit hours during my freshman, sophomore and, potentially, junior years,” he said. “By doing this, I hope to free up more time in my junior and senior years to work on my Scholars Research Project, begin my MBA degree from UT Martin, start studying for the CPA Exam and search for employment.
“I also want to start studying for my (certified public accountant) exam. So, when I graduate, I’ll have a Master of Business Administration, and then, I’ll be close to or, hopefully, have already passed the CPA exam and leverage that MBA/CPA combo to work in financial management. If I gear that to work in the private sector for an ag company, that would be great.”
Lovell said that he would be busy during this fall semester applying for other internships.
“The goal is to get my MBA, get my CPA to become a certified public accountant and become a chartered global management accountant,” he said. “That’s a relatively new certification; Whitney Stover (lecturer of accounting and one of Lovell’s instructors) has it. If I could get an international position, that would be great, too. That’s the thing about agriculture: It’s highly diversified and it’s global. I’m fluent in Spanish, and I’m learning to speak Portuguese.”
Lovell said people may wonder what working in politics over the summer may have to do with his goal of becoming an accountant or agricultural businessman.
“I appreciate the opportunity of going up there and working in politics, but I realized that I don’t really want to commute in on the metro every day,” he said. “I really like helping people, and I think I got a small glimpse into what researching policy and working policy was like, working not only under Congressman Guthrie but also the policy staff. I’m not saying that I would hate that job, but I think I would have more fulfillment in the private sector.
“I loved working for the people in the district, and the people that I worked with were great. I don’t plan on going into politics, but I really enjoyed my time while I was up there, and I enjoyed making a difference for the time it lasted, and I was glad for the connections that I made along the way.”
PHOTO: UT Martin sophomore Mason Lovell is shown on the steps of the Capitol with Rep. Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.). Lovell served a four-week internship in Washington, D.C., as an aide to Guthrie.
