Sophia Jiang - Future Politician?

Sophia Jiang ’26 spent part of her summer interning with Councilman Carlos Flores of Fort Worth City Council’s District 2 and his office. 

This all started last year during Career Conversations when she chose a session hosted by Jack Carvalho ’17, District Director for Councilman Flores, and the rest is history. Jiang chose Carvalho’s session to hear about his experience working in government and remained in contact with him. She eventually sent her resume to Carvalho, who passed it onto Councilman Flores; she interviewed and got the job.

“I was interested in this position because I wanted to learn more about politics in America,” said Jiang. “I also was interested in an internship with the Fort Worth City Council because it gave me a closer look at local politics specifically. After taking Mrs. [Sara] Teegarden's government class and since I am currently taking AP U.S. History with Mrs. [Jennifer] Giroir, I wanted to learn more about politics because it is something I look to potentially study in university. I love history, and this was a way I could observe politicians using their influence to help citizens of Fort Worth and be part of history myself.”

During her time at City Hall, she was tasked with taking notes at council meetings, drafting press answers for media inquiries and talking points for speaking engagements, summarizing information the Councilman needed, and researching topics the office needed to work on. She also had the opportunity to attend the unveiling of a mural on the side of Artes de la Rosa Cultural Center for the Arts in Fort Worth that was commissioned by the MLB and Texas Rangers leading up to the All-Star game.

“Overall, the internship was very meaningful and rewarding because I was able to observe the workings of our local government,” she said. “I learned to adapt to fast-paced meetings and discussions, summarize information concisely, and see how politicians make decisions to help the citizens of Fort Worth. It also aided in my understanding on what it means to be a civically engaged U.S. citizen because, on the local scale, politicians decide on policies we follow in our daily lives as people from Fort Worth; a civically engaged person elects officials that will address our concerns.”