After graduating from Cal State Long Beach last spring, former Associated Students Inc. President James Ahumada went to Washington, D.C. to work for the U.S. House of Representatives.
Ahumada began his ASI career in 2007 as a member of the Beach Team, an ASI student government introductory group, during his freshman year.
He continued working with ASI throughout his college career and became the ASI president for the 2010-11 academic year.
He now works as a staff assistant for the U.S. House. His job duties are to run the office, assist the staff and attend briefings, among other things.
He was selected as an intern in August 2011 with the Panetta Institute’s Congressional Intern Program and was hired as a staff assistant in December 2011.
During his internship, Ahumada was trained at the institute’s Monterey office, and then traveled to D.C. to work in the office of California Congressman Henry A. Waxman. Although Ahumada started off working in government, he plans to continue his education and wants to obtain a master’s in public policy.
“The main focus wasn’t to go into government right after,” Ahumada said.
He was not only involved in ASI, but he was also the president of Phi Kappa Tau. He said that being involved on campus is important because it can help shape a person’s life.
“[Getting involved on campus] lets you try your skills out,” he said. “And it allows you to practice your skills too. For example, leadership is something you can practice.”
Working closely with the politicians, he is able to engage in public policy conversations. He said his passion is education and higher education issues, and he hopes to make changes in educational policy.
“I’m learning how to make changes, but you also learn how hard it is make change,” he said.
During his freshman year, Ahumada was a commuter student and saw the need to get students more connected with campus organizations. Once he heard about OrgSync, a student organization social networking platform, he decided to push the ASI Senate to approve the purchase of the network.
He said that he thought OrgSync would help commuter students and transfer students become aware of all the organizations the campus has to offer.
“I just thought, ‘How do we give [organizations] the opportunity to give students an opportunity to learn what’s available on and off campus?'” he said. “I thought it would help fix the problem.”
Ahumada has not decided where he wants to pursue his master’s degree, but he would like to return to California, and, if not, he will stay in Washington, D.C., for school. He said being involved in school really helped him to get to the position he is in now.
“If I wanted to succeed later in life, I had to learn how to get involved,” Ahumada said.
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