60-year-old mom from Beverly is the oldest intern at the Massachusetts State House
Internships are a great way for students to gain experience before starting their careers, even for Lorinda Visnick, a 60-year-old intern at the Massachusetts State House.
Visnick is a mother, coach, hall of fame basketball player at Boston University, school committee member and once again a student. She's the oldest intern at the state house, working with five other interns for state Sen. Jason Lewis.
"I'm in this office and the other interns are literally still undergraduates in college. I'm like, my own children are older than all of you," said Visnick.
At 60, she's older than Lewis and that prompted office leadership to give her a title of her own.
"We are having her do harder work"
"We gave her the fellowship title for two reasons," said Lewis's director of communications, Paul Albright. "One, because she is older than the other interns, but really it's because she's so much more experienced and is coming in with so much more that we are having her do harder work."
But, the intern group works well together, researching bills and taking notes at hearings.
"We often hang out together and do homework," said Visnick.
Following a career in computer science, Visnick ran for school committee in Beverly, giving her the perfect background to work on a bill proposing a statewide cellphone ban in schools.
"I think that it's fortuitous that I happen to be here this year while this is happening," said Visnick.
PhD student at UMass Boston
Now, she's working toward her PhD at UMass Boston in public policy and hopes to make an impact on the housing crisis.
"I want to try to help more children get a great public education and close this achievement gap really intersected with housing," said Visnick.
This internship is giving her more tools in her toolbox to make that dream a reality.
"She's doing exactly what she was hoping to do, to learn practically how public policy works on a day-to-day and why things don't work," said PhD program director Christian Weller.
She's learned a lot this summer, not only about the legislative process, but also that you're never too old to start over.
"Maybe it's because I'm around so many younger people, I don't think of myself as 'Oh, I'm old.'"
