Sarah Stevens is just a few weeks shy of her 26th birthday, but she’s already received the ultimate vote of confidence from Rep. Steve King.

Before becoming the Iowa Republican’s chief of staff Stevens worked as King’s press assistant, press secretary and communications director. But her grounding in how Washington works—and how to fight for conservative principles and policies in Congress—can be traced back to her senior year in college, when she interned with Heritage through Liberty University’s Washington Fellowship program.

In 2016, Heritage’s Young Leaders Program will welcome over 180 college students to work shoulder to shoulder with our researchers, legal scholars, and communications and marketing professionals. In addition to lectures and study programs led by Heritage scholars, they have the opportunity to hear from foreign leaders, members of Congress, and leading political scientists.

Heritage’s intern program shapes and sharpens promising young conservatives so the rising generation can help reclaim America as a land where freedom, opportunity, prosperity, and civil society flourish. 

Helena Richardson, director of the Young Leaders Program, says that Heritage’s internship program prepares students differently from other formalized intern programs across the country.

“Through our first principles lectures, policy briefings, skill development seminars, and a mentorship program we allow interns the opportunity to experience how Heritage leads the conservative movement. We are training and equipping the next generation of conservative leaders to lead, and Sarah is great example of it in action,” said Richardson. 

Heritage is also committed to “missionary work”— introducing young people to conservative principles, regardless of where they may be on the ideological spectrum. 

In 2015, the Young Leaders Program hosted briefings for 62 groups of high-schoolers, college students, and young professionals, and spoke at more than 100 on-campus events at colleges and universities throughout the country.  

Heritage works to present young students with a conservative voice on issues of the day, a voice that’s rarely heard on today’s progressive campuses.