June Student Spotlight with Tyler Gooding, BSPA ’21

BSPA student Tyler Gooding tells us about his NYS Assembly Internship, NYS Senate internship, and the policy issues he’s most passionate about.

Tell us about being accepted into the NYS Assembly Internship. What are you working on there?
In part I decided to transfer to Baruch after earning my Associates degree to have access to an opportunity like this internship. For years I knew I wanted to one day have a career in government or public policy but had a hard time figuring out how to make that possible. I figured being at Baruch would be a great start and that turned out to be true. The application process wasn’t too difficult, especially with Professor Feller’s help whenever I had a question. Once accepted into the Internship I had to immediately get to work finding a place in Albany and just preparing myself for the transition to living on my own in a completely different place.

In the internship my main role is managing my Assembly member’s office. This role encompasses a variety of duties, such as: meeting with lobbyists; assisting in the legislative filling process; assisting in legislative research; interacting with constituents and connecting them to appropriate resources that they need; and managing schedule requests, among others.

You interned with the NYS Senate in 2019 – how is the Assembly experience different thus far?
The internship I did with the NYS Senate in 2019 is much different from my current internship. The 2019 internship was in a district office that was fully staffed so I didn’t have much responsibilities other than doing some research and doing data entry on a regular basis. It was also an unpaid internship, so  I could only dedicate 8 hours to it a week as I needed to work. With this Assembly Internship, I have a ton of responsibilities which can be overwhelming at times but also empowering. The internship is paid, this allows me to focus all my energy on immersing myself into learning all I can about how the Assembly operates and finding out if I want to pursue a career in this institution.

What policy issues are you most passionate about? How did these topics become of interest to you?
The policy issues that I am most passionate about are creating affordable housing, criminal justice reform, public education, and community development (specifically focused on working class and minority communities). These issues have been an interest of mine for years to a certain degree but they have become more important to me within the last year due to some great teachers of mine. Professors at Baruch such as Hilary Botein and Judith Kafka have sparked  my interest in their respective fields, and what I’ve learned in their classes will guide me throughout this internship as play a small role in the potential legislation that comes out of the Assembly.