Marshall University students are experiencing state politics firsthand through the Frasure-Singleton Internship this week in Charleston.

The internship intends to give college students in West Virginia an opportunity to learn about state politics by shadowing a delegate or state senator for the week.

Sophomore Whitney Ramey said the internship runs two weeks, and students attend one week at a time from Sunday to Friday. Ramey said six Marshall students are attending this week and two will attend next week.

“It’s supposed to really embrace what West Virginia politics are and what that climate is,” Isabelle Rogner, senior international business major, said.

“The whole concept of what our legislative session goes through is very foreign to us,” Rogner said, adding that the internship makes the process more familiar to college students.

“They’re not foreign people,” Rogner said of state politicians. “They’re one of us.”

Rogner and Ramey said professors were happy to accommodate them on missing a week of classes. “They were all really excited I was going,” Ramey said.

“Everyone was excited for me,” Rogner said. “They wanted to accommodate me, by all means.”

Rogner found out about the internship through a friend who suggested it to her, and Ramey learned of it through a professor in one of her political science classes.

Rogner and Ramey said the application process was simple. Ramey said the application asked students to list three issues in West Virginia that are most important to them.

“I picked, of course, the drug epidemic that’s happening, education and women’s health,” Ramey said. Rogner said she indicated on her application that she did not have a preference on what political party she was partnered with because she thought she could learn more from an opposing opinion.

Ramey is shadowing Delegate Bill Anderson who represents Wood County, and Rogner is spending the week with Delegate Matthew Rohrbach who represents Cabell County. They both said they sat in on several meetings Monday including the Transportations Committee, Health Committee, Finance Committee and Energy Committee.

The students also had the chance to sit in on the concealed weapons debate Monday. Rogner said the delegates and senate debated from about 11 a.m. until 3 p.m.

“It was crazy,” said Rogner. “They were just going back and forth but the vote still went in favor of what everyone thought it was going to.”

“I definitely think that if I do decide to pursue politics in the future, this is going to be networking for me,” Ramey said. She also said the internship will help her gain confidence in the political science field because she is becoming more familiar with the way things run at the Captiol.

“Seeing what (Delegate Rohrbach) does in between sessions, seeing how they collaborate and how they have sound decisions before they even go on the floor, that’s where I’m going to learn the most,” Rogner said. “I love being intertwined with that.”

Lydia Waybright can be contacted at [email protected]