{"id":17967,"date":"2022-01-20T09:23:12","date_gmt":"2022-01-20T15:23:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/news\/?p=17967"},"modified":"2022-01-20T09:23:12","modified_gmt":"2022-01-20T15:23:12","slug":"alum-reflects-on-year-working-in-the-white-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/news\/2022\/01\/20\/alum-reflects-on-year-working-in-the-white-house\/","title":{"rendered":"Alum reflects on year working in the White House"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

Christopher Garcia ’16<\/p><\/div>\n

Christopher Garcia \u201816 never imagined he\u2019d work at the White House. Then, he purchased a DVD of the show \u201cThe West Wing<\/a>\u201d and was hooked.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to make it there one day,\u201d Garcia recalls thinking at the time. \u201cI don\u2019t know how it’s going to happen, or what I\u2019m going to do, but that\u2019s going to be me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Within a decade, he was one of President Biden\u2019s first 100 appointees, being named a senior legislative affairs advisor in the White House Office of Legislative Affairs. One year since the president\u2019s inauguration, Garcia reflects on his journey that started, arguably, in a Jimmy John\u2019s restaurant.<\/p>\n

The 36-year-old didn\u2019t attend college immediately after high school; he was a general manager at one of the sandwich chain\u2019s shops. There, he gained experience and motivation; he went to college in his mid-20s, graduating in the top of his class. He was then the first in his family accepted to law school. \u201cMitchell Hamline will always have a soft spot in my heart.\u201d<\/p>\n

Soon after graduating from Mitchell Hamline in 2016, Garcia returned to San Antonio, where he grew up, to work on the campaign of former U.S. Representative Pete Gallego. Campaign staffers often are hired to work for candidates after an electoral win, which had Garcia thinking about a possible move to Washington.<\/p>\n

But Gallego lost the race.<\/p>\n

Even so, Garcia still wanted to move to D.C. and packed his bags (and life savings). In Washington, he slept on a friend\u2019s couch \u2013 a classmate from Mitchell Hamline! \u2013 while job searching. After several interviews, Garcia was finally offered an unpaid internship. In accepting the gig, Garcia asked himself \u201cHow bad do you want this dream?\u201d<\/p>\n

The internship eventually led to jobs with Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar; Congresswoman Deb Haaland, who is now interior secretary; the Biden-Harris transition team; and finally, the appointment to President Biden\u2019s administration in 2020.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Christopher Garcia ’16<\/p><\/div>\n

Garcia vividly remembers getting the call to work in the White House. \u201cI thought about the sacrifices that my single mom made to get me here,\u201d he said. \u201cI thought of my culture and every Mexican-American person who has come to this country and tried to make another life for their kids.\u201d<\/p>\n

Garcia has spent the year working with members of Congress to pass the administration\u2019s priorities, including a $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill and an infrastructure bill that passed with bipartisan support.<\/p>\n

Now that Garcia is working his dream job daily alongside members of Congress and the president, he wants more representation from all cultures and genders. \u201cIt\u2019s important to me because I\u2019m one cog on the wheel who can trailblaze a change so when I\u2019m 80 or 90, there\u2019s a higher percentage of people of color serving the highest level of our government.\u201d<\/p>\n

Garcia says he\u2019s still in awe that he works at the White House. His office is in the East Wing, just a short walk from the West Wing that inspired him on the small screen.<\/p>\n

\u201cEmbrace the ambiguity,\u201d he suggests for aspiring attorneys, but always \u201cstart with kindness.\u201d<\/p>\n

This article was written by Marla Khan-Schwartz, a freelance writer in the Twin Cities.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Christopher Garcia \u201816 never imagined he\u2019d work at the White House. Then, he purchased a DVD of the show \u201cThe West Wing\u201d and was hooked. \u201cI\u2019m going to make it there one day,\u201d Garcia recalls thinking at the time. \u201cI don\u2019t know how it’s going to happen, or what I\u2019m going to do, but that\u2019s … <\/p>\n

Alum reflects on year working in the White House<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5668,"featured_media":17970,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[21,3,5],"tags":[28,180,309,310,179],"class_list":{"0":"post-17967","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-alumni","8":"category-features","9":"category-news","10":"tag-alumni","11":"tag-biden","12":"tag-christopher-garcia","13":"tag-public-service","14":"tag-white-house","15":"entry"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5668"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17967"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17967\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}