Spokanite is Obama intern

There is one thing Jordan Elliott Clark, 20, has always shared with President Barack Obama: a birthday on Aug. 4. Yet when he was born in Moses Lake nothing indicated that he would one day be sharing workspace with the president as well.

Today, Clark, who graduated from Lewis and Clark High School in 2006, is filling an internship in the White House communications department. He was one of more than 6,000 people who applied for 138 internships and in an e-mail interview he writes this about his reaction when he found out he got the job: “I decided to go for a walk and listen to R. Kelly’s ‘I believe’ song like 300 times. And then at 3:11 p.m. I got the e-mail that said I had the job. I was overjoyed, so packed full of emotion that I just cried for five minutes. After that I ran around campus screaming at the top of my lungs.”

Clark is a junior at Northeastern University in Boston, and while in Washington, D.C. he is staying at American University, where he is in a program called Institute for Responsible Citizenship. His goal is to become an attorney.

“I think around fourth grade I decided that I wanted to be a lawyer,” Clark writes. “I think it came because I noticed that people who know their rights and the law can’t be taken advantage of.”

Clark said another thing he has in common with President Obama is being biracial.

“I followed President Obama’s career since he was elected into Senate in 2004,” Clark writes. “I even tried to intern at his office in Senate last year (I ended up in Senator Kennedy’s office instead) so once I found out he was running for president I was determined to do what I could do to help him get elected.”

Growing up, Clark lived all over Spokane but mainly on the lower South Hill. At one time, when he was 13 and living in Cheney, he’d get up at 2 a.m. to deliver The Spokesman-Review.

“It was a lot of work, but I did it for about a year to help out my family,” Clark writes. “And also to save up money for my eighth-grade trip to Washington, D.C. – my first trip to the East Coast.”

At LC, Clark was active in numerous clubs and was vice president of the Associated Student Body. He served on the Chase Youth Commission and graduated from Youth Leadership Spokane in 2004. Clark was chosen for a Chase Youth Commission Award for Diversity. He raised more than $3,000 to help pay for a bronze sculpture of Michael P. Anderson that was eventually built in downtown Spokane. Anderson was a Spokane astronaut who died in the 2003 Columbia space shuttle explosion.

Clark likes the East Coast and the hustle and bustle of big cities like Washington, D.C. and Boston.

Does he miss anything about Spokane?

“The biggest thing I miss is what surrounds Spokane,” wrote Clark. “I am an avid snowboarder and the mountains over here are nothing compared to what is by Spokane. I also miss camping.”

At the White House, Clark is in charge of compiling news reports from 22 states, which means he goes through about 70 newspapers – twice – every morning, looking for headlines and clips pertaining to specific issues like energy and health care.

“After my clips are done, I have projects that staff has asked me to work on,” wrote Clark. “Throughout the day I’m also in charge of helping to answer phones.” Clark also sends out news updates via e-mail to everyone in the White House, a duty which he finds both intimidating and exciting.

“It literally goes to almost everyone in the White House,” Clark wrote, “and my name is attached to it.”

Of course he has run into lots of famous politicians, their staff and supporters: Press secretary Robert Gibbs, senior adviser to the president, David Axelrod, and the personal aides of President Obama and the first lady, Reggie Love and Dana Lewis. Many of them give presentations for the White House interns in a special speaker series.

“That is a wonderful and priceless experience because we get an hour with people who help shape the American policy that affects the entire globe,” Clark wrote.

So, what’s next for Clark? He is not certain about that. For now he’s just absorbing as much as he can from his White House and Washington, D.C. experience.

“It is so exciting to be here, and I’m learning so much,” he wrote. “I hope that one day I will be able to work on policy or be some sort of adviser or director on a council. Who knows? Maybe senior advisor or president myself.”