Meet Our Class of '26
Our ongoing partnership with the Fund for American Studies D.C. Academic Internship Program
For years, the Rail Passengers Association’s partnership with the Fund for American Studies (TFAS) D.C. Academic Internship Program has brought fresh perspectives and incredible talent to our team. This year is no exception.
Our latest trio represents a diverse cross-section of America, united by a shared goal: learning how to protect, preserve, and expand the nation’s passenger rail network while building their future careers in law and public service.
Please help us welcome our summer “Class of 2026”:
My name is Lucy Whitener. I am an upcoming senior pre-law English major at Georgia College and State University in Milledgeville, Georgia. I am currently a longstanding member of Delta Gamma, Vice President of Public Relations for my service sorority Gamma Sigma Sigma, and President of the Pre-Law fraternity on my campus, Phi Alpha Delta. I am hoping to eventually work in tax law, but I love working in non-profit and writing when possible. I chose The Fund for American Studies as my Summer program because of my love for Washington, D.C., and wanting to gain more hands-on experience in the corporate world. The program has been great so far, and I feel honored to have been placed with the Rail Passengers Association! My hometown is Duluth, Georgia, which my family lovingly refers to as “Train Town” because of all the railroads that pass by my downtown. I am excited to work with a team of people who care about something so close to my home. I hope to make new connections in this internship with the team I am working with and learn how to engage more thoroughly in legal research!
I’m Christine, a rising senior at Mount Holyoke College (South Hadley, MA) studying English and history. This summer, I elected to attend TFAS because my professor referred me over here and I saw the breadth of opportunity and development it offered—and the chance to work in Washington, DC! I chose to work at Rail Passengers because, as a native of New Jersey, I am intimately familiar with the NJTransit system and the NYC Subway as well as Amtrak to get to and from school (especially the Vermonter), and I am invested in championing that ease of access to transportation, which I have personally experienced. To me, railroads and public transportation are the circulatory system of the US, literally and figuratively, and I bring my strong writing background and an interest in railway history to the table to preserve and protect the accessibility of public transportation now and for the future. Here, I am excited to develop my legal writing and research skills by contributing to RPA’s already comprehensive research as well as gain exposure to a wide range of policy issues, including on my home turf of the NJTransit. With my degree, I am hoping to work after college to gain experience in legal fields with the eventual goal of pursuing a JD.
Hello, Rail Passengers Association. My name is Trevor, and I am a rising senior at Wichita State University, majoring in political science with a minor in criminal justice and honors. I was born and raised in Wichita, Kansas, in the American heartland, where high-quality, regular rail transit is nearly non-existent. I wanted to know more about this gap, the upstream and downstream impacts on our communities, and the best policies to address these problems. This is why I chose to spend my summer in D.C. as an intern with the Rail Passengers Association. I am not only interning at the RPA this summer, but I am also spending time as we celebrate America 250 with the Fund for American Studies to further strengthen my time in D.C. by learning about our civic responsibilities as citizens and how we can protect our institutions and values moving into an uncertain future. I hope that during my time here in our nation's capital, I will better understand what I want to do after college, whether that be law school, a master's, or something entirely different, and build a lasting, professional, and valuable network of amazing people along the way.
It would be great to also have the last names of Christine and Trevor! Welcome and we look forward to collaborating.