I am Shreya Venkatesh and I welcome you to my senior project blog! If you can't tell already, I'm very excited to share this experience with you.
Before I begin, I should probably tell you a little about myself. I am currently a senior at BASIS Scottsdale who is over-enthusiastic about everything. Academically, I love science, math, literature, and chocolate. Aside from that, however, I watch a lot of kids' shows like Max & Ruby or My Little Pony. But because I must sound like a mature adult so that you take this blog (and my research) seriously, I will focus on the fact that I participate in riveting discussions about Sherlock and Doctor Who. I also read many interesting books of great literary merit.
But enough about me. On to the reason you are actually here! First off, a shout-out to my amazing college counselor Ms. Michelle Conner and my very awesome faculty advisor Mr. Dana Johnson.
(Insert drum roll)
For my senior project, I will be interning at the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The overarching goal of the organization is to encourage and foster business, pushing for free-market policies to allow business to prosper in Arizona. To achieve this goal, the Chamber works, for instance, to decrease heavy regulation on businesses in various sectors of the industry.
Though I am not sure what exactly my work will be during my internship yet, the research question I am currently focusing on involves society's perceptions of lobbyists. If you've ever taken a government class, you know the textbooks don't exactly glorify lobbyists. However, lobbyists are an instrumental part of the legislative system and without them, there are many policies that may not have been enacted at all. Through my research, I hope to understand the role of the lobbyist in government and business, venturing to find out the truth (does society truly hold this negative a view of lobbyists?) and begin transforming negative perceptions of lobbying.
Thank you for being here for my very first post! There's more to come in February, so stay tuned. I hope my excited rambling and my (endearing?) quirks don't scare you away.
I absolutely love your post Shreya! It gives the right amount of seriousness juxtaposed by the playful intro about yourself. Sidenote: Talk to me anytime if you wish to have an intense conversation about Doctor Who and/or Sherlock (maybe at the same time). I find it very fitting that you are researching the role of the lobbyist for I could just imagine you lobbying outside the Capitol. I'm quite interested in your continued journey and how you'll "transform the negative perceptions of lobbying." How did you come to be on the side of the lobbyists? Was it just by reading about them or do you have personal experience with lobbyists? I hope to capitol-ize your blog and become more knowledgeable about the system that governs us.
ReplyDeleteThanks for being brave enough to comment on the madness that is my first post Kiri!! I'm so glad you liked it (AKA when is your first post coming so I can comment away happily and praise your brilliance?). I look forward to our intense and inevitable Sherlock/Doctor Who conversations.
DeleteI did read a lot about lobbyists and found the negative view of them totally unfair. I mean, for instance, there had to have been people lobbying for the Civil Rights Act and that legislation was something that brought about so much good. After this internship, I'll definitely have one or two experiences with lobbyists to give me more perspective on the entire subject, so I'm very excited for that, but until then, sorry. I got no personal experience. And I hope we can all become more knowledgeable about this topic through my research as well. So excited!
Shreya! I loved your first post and all your Office and Sherlock gifs! As one who knows some stuff about U.S. Government, taking the class and all, I am very excited to see where your research is going to take you. I too think that society seems to put lobbyists in a negative perspective, which is completely unfair since they are a significant part in shaping our government. I can't wait to read what you're going to do and learn even more about government (if that's even possible :P) through your project. Catch you on the flippity flip!
ReplyDeleteThanks Korina!! I'm really excited too. Don't worry I'll keep the GIFs coming. I can't wait to read all the cool and awesome things you're going to be doing too! Actually, I think I'll go read your blog again now...
DeleteShreya,
ReplyDeleteGreat work with this blog post! I look forward to upcoming posts on this project, I find the topic of public perception of lobbyists and other key players in government interesting! I do not have any pressing comments at this time about your project since it is an introductory post about you and your research. I only have one question at this point. Is your overall goal to answer the question "How are lobbyists viewed by the general populace?" or to "encourage and foster business, pushing for free-market policies to allow business to prosper in Arizona" which you mention earlier in the post? Both are good goals, but I don't know which one is more important to you. Good work here, I look forward to future posts!
-JW
Thank you Mr. Wells! The second goal you mentioned ("to encourage and foster business...") is part of the principle goals of the AZ Chamber of Commerce, so while it will probably be part of my work there, it doesn't directly correlate with the goal of my research, which is to examine societal perceptions surrounding lobbyists. I'm excited to continue discussing my research and my internship with you through the course of this project!
DeleteShreya,
ReplyDeleteAwesome job on the first post! I really liked how you put your personality into the post. Your humor will definitely make the next posts fun to read! Also, if you are interning at the Chamber of Commerce, how are you involved with lobbyists? Do the lobbyists come to you to lobby to the Chamber?
I'll be waiting for the next post!
Thank you Brent! Yay humor! My project mentor (along with others at the Chamber) is actually a lobbyist himself. I will be reporting to and working with him during my internship, so I thought it would be interesting to learn more about his line of work and the views that surround it. I'm not sure if lobbyists shape policies through the Chamber itself, though. I know the Chamber pushes for policies to encourage business in Arizona, but I will definitely find out if people lobby the Chamber itself when I start working there.
DeleteHi Shreya!
ReplyDeleteI absolutely loved reading through your blog post! Your humor and personality made reading this blog post enjoyable and I am very interested in seeing where this research takes you! I'm curious though why you chose to focus on lobbyists. Where did your interests in negative perceptions about lobbyists come about?
Can't wait to read more!
Awww thanks Anjalee! I loved your post too, which I just finished reading. The way you described Thailand made me want to go there so badly! I suppose I was always curious about why lobbyists were viewed so negatively since we took AP US Government. It just seemed unfair to me that people who did some suspicious things in the field messed up society's perceptions of the lobbyists who actually worked to create positive change and push for policies that would help the public. So, through my research, I want to look at general perceptions of lobbyists from various groups of people.
DeleteHey Shreya! Great job on your first post! Your humor, gifs, and voice in this post made it really catching and interesting. I definitely want to read more! Your topic also catches my eye, as someone who likes government and has taken the class, I am curious to see what new perspective you will bring to this topic. I was just wondering, how do you hope to "transform" the societal perception of lobbyists after your research and do you think societal perception will change over time?
ReplyDeleteThanks so much Anirudh! I enjoyed your first post as well! In terms of transforming the societal perception of lobbyists, I'm hoping that I can publish my research for all the world to see (in addition to having it on this blog) and begin a path towards respecting and admiring the work that lobbyists do. Since I will be working closely with a lobbyist, I hope people will take away from my personal experience and see that most lobbyists are wonderful, honorable people. I do think social perception surrounding this can change over time (even if it's not immediate), especially as more people hear about lobbyists as social/civil servants than as self-serving manipulators.
DeleteHi Shreya. Your blog seems extremely intriguing especially because I am considering politics for one of my possible careers. I was wondering if you had any specific aspects to draw you to this project and do you have a neutral, negative, or positive view on lobbyists.
ReplyDeleteHi Michael! I'm glad to hear that you're interested in this field. I was initially drawn to this project simply because I wanted to explore something outside of my comfort zone. However, the more research I did concerning the AZ Chamber of Commerce and its work along with lobbying and its history, I found the whole area really fascinating. I would say that I have a positive view on lobbyists because of their positions alone. A person who takes the time to meet with elected officials and offer different perspectives on a particular law, for instance, can be very helpful in the legislative process. Of course, I do recognize that some lobbyists use this position in questionable ways that are not representative of all lobbyists' methods, but again, the social dilemma accompanying this is what I hope to examine through this project. Thanks for the question!
DeleteHi Shreya! I liked how you incorporated humor and made your project interesting through the jokes and gifs. I read your post and I had a question: How do you hope to change the negative views of the public through this blog? Good luck on your project!
ReplyDeleteHi Marvin! I'm glad you liked the humor. There's definitely more where that came from. Anyways, as I said before, I'm hoping that I can publish my research (in addition to having it on this blog) and begin a path towards respecting and admiring the work that lobbyists do. Since I will be working closely with a lobbyist, I hope people will also take away from my personal experience and see the truth behind the lobbyist's work and how substantially it impacts the legislative process. Thanks for the question!
DeleteHi Shreya! I have a couple questions about your research as their are many lobbyists out there. It seems that the morality of the lobbyists depends on the individual lobbyists. Do you know what lobbyists you will be working with and how are you going to measure the influence lobbyists has on politics?
ReplyDeleteIm Javier Goldberg by the way kinda messed up there
DeleteHi Javier! No problem. We all do silly things (that's from Sherlock, by the way, courtesy of Molly Hooper). But anyways, getting back to the point, as far as I know, I am currently working with only one lobbyist (who is an amazing person). Also, the goal of my project is not to quantitatively measure the influence lobbyists have on politics per se. People have already looked at this and it's a confirmed fact that lobbyists have a significant influence in political matters. Instead, I hope to describe my experiences with lobbying and give a firsthand account of the way most lobbyists work to effect what they believe is positive change (and what usually ends up being positive change). Thanks for the question!
DeleteShreya, I just realized I never commented on this post. I really thought I did. I think I wrote a comment and never hit "Publish." Oh well. It's a bit late for me to ask a question on this particular post, but I love reading about how your project is coming along!
ReplyDeleteNo problem, Stirling. I'm glad you like how my project is going. Yours is really exciting to read about too!
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