Matt Elliott WORDS Gary Lawson PORTRAIT 42 An OSU senior had a front-row seat to history last summer as an intern for U.S. House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner. Kelly Lynn Offutt, a sociology major and leadership minor, says the experience during the nation’s debt debate fanned her love of politics. “I loved everything that surrounded the internship,” Offutt says. “I loved the people in the speaker’s office, and I felt like I learned a lot of leadership skills from them.” Offutt, from Ponca City, arrived during the 10-week congressional showdown over whether to raise the national debt ceiling, the limit on how much the nation can borrow to pay its bills. Leaders sparred over taxes, spending and cuts to everything from defense to Medicare. After much back-and-forth between Boehner, the president and others, Democrats and Republicans just before the Aug. 2 deadline extended the ceiling debt in exchange for $2.4 trillion in cuts. Aug. 2 was also the last day of Offutt’s internship. Internship with U.S. House speaker prepares College of Arts and Sciences student Kelly Lynn Offutt for leadership. Leader to Be “It was an interesting day to be your last day there,” she says. “I think my No. 1 fear going into the internship was how the office would treat people. I was really pleasantly surprised to see his office was very positive.” Offutt spent her days helping Boehner’s legislative assistants collect data and other information, relying on her sociology background to obtain and convey information. Besides the chance to meet visiting dignitaries such as the Dalai Lama, she also did typical intern tasks such as stock the fridge and pick up coffee. It wasn’t her first time in Washington. Offutt was OSU’s student body president last year and visited the Capitol to lobby for higher education. She found similarities between politics she admired in Washington and politics on campus. OSU’s Student Government Association, she says, practiced “servant leadership,” the idea that elected officials work for the people and a greater cause. That’s something, she says, Boehner and his staff members exhibited. In addition to what she learned about leadership and government, she says the friendships she made will last a lifetime. “The No. 1 lesson learned through my internship was just a greater sense of what it truly means to be a leader,” Offutt says. “I’ve had leadership experiences at OSU that prepared me for this internship, and now I feel like this is my second step; a second tier of what it means to be a leader.” After graduating in December, she wants to work for Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s presidential campaign. Offutt is the daughter of OSU alumni John and Diane Offutt of Houston. Her father is pipeline projects manager with ConocoPhillips and her mother is a third-grade teacher.
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