ABOUT US

Pay Our Interns was founded by Carlos Mark Vera and Guillermo Creamer Jr., two unpaid interns.

Together, Carlos and Guillermo worked as interns across five different offices, including the House of Representatives, the White House, the office of the D.C. Mayor, and the European Parliament.

In September of 2016, they compared experiences, and realized their hardships and challenges were similar. Weeks after the 2016 presidential election, the two focus on creating a non-profit. By June 2017, a first of its kind Congressional Report titled: Experience Doesn’t Pay the Bills listed which members of Congress paid and which did not. The report was received and shared by various news outlets highlighting the limited number of members who offered paid internships.

Since then, Pay Our Interns has:

- Worked with various offices, doubling the number of Senate Democrats who offer paid internships and increasing the number of Senate Republicans as well.
- Worked with candidates in the DNC chair race to ensure their support in offering a paid internship program if elected.
- In June 2018, Pay Our Interns successfully worked with the DNC, DCCC, and several Senate offices to help create their paid internship programs. Along with a group of bipartisan legislators, the team also worked to help create the first ever internship fund allocation for the Senate at a $5 million fund.
- A few weeks after a successful partnership with the Senate, the team worked with a group of bipartisan legislators on the House side and successfully secured $8.8 Million in intern funding.
- On October 3rd, 2018, the President of the United States signed a minibus budget that included $13.8 million in funding for an internship program in Congress

Meet Our Team

Carlos Mark Vera

Co-Founder, Executive Director

Carlos Mark Vera is the Co-Founder and current Executive Director of Pay Our Interns. Originally from Colombia, Carlos was raised in California, but moved to Washington, D.C. to attend American University. While at AU, Carlos was an unpaid intern at the White House, the European Parliament, and the House of Representatives. He knows firsthand the struggles of trying to survive while interning for free. Under his leadership, Pay Our Interns successfully convinced Congress to pass more than $31 million in funding for interns and has helped nonprofits, companies, and presidential campaigns create their internship programs.

Carlos’ efforts on Capitol Hill led him to be named a Forbes 30 Under 30 Honoree, Echoing Green Fellow, Camelback Ventures Fellow, a Top 20 Changemaker by NBC Latino, and an Aspen Ideas Fellow. He has been featured in The Washington Post, NPR’s All Things Considered, The New York Times, CNN and The Atlantic. He has also written for The Washington Post, Teen Vogue, USA Today, and NBC Latino. Carlos proudly served in the Army Reserves as a mechanic for 8 years.

Carlos can be reached via email and found online at Twitter

Jess Huang

Communications Manager

Jess Huang is the first member of her family to work in politics and couldn’t have done it without internships. That’s why she wants to make the intern process more equitable for all.

Previously, she spent over a decade working for elected officials, across all levels of government. When she’s not working, she’s a writer with bylines in CNN, Teen Vogue, Marie Claire, and proudly repped by the Bent Agency. As a graduate student at King’s College London, she helped organize an event for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and learned all about royal protocol. She has an MA in War Studies and is currently a graduate student at Johns Hopkins University in Global Security.

When she’s not writing press releases or thinking about the perfect social media tweet, she’s catering to the whims of her three cats, Tortellini, Jack and Sadie.

HABIBA MOHAMED

Federal Affairs Manager

Habiba Mohamed is an advocate – always fighting to center those who have yet to see themselves in the halls of power. She’s the daughter of Somali refugees and a proud first-generation college student. She’s a 2016 graduate of D’Youville College in Buffalo, NY. Habiba knows the barriers unpaid labor reinforce and is working to expand access to paid and well-rounded internship experiences for people in our communities. Building on her experience with Journey’s End Refugee Services, the Office of Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, and most recently the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Habiba is excited to remind policymakers that we should all be afforded the opportunity to not only survive—but to thrive.

Mario Sanguinet

Senior Research Associate

Mario Sanguinet developed an interest in the college-to-career connection after teaching college for a few years and hearing a few students ask: “How will this class help me get a job?” He has been teaching college students how to become better humans by focusing on their relationship and public speaking skills since 2014. He has also worked on local economic development issues like Smart Cities, Urban Agriculture, and San Diego’s Creative Economy. Occasionally, he writes about San Diego’s arts and culture. He graduated with a bachelors, cum laude, and masters in Communication from San Diego State University.

MarioSanguinet-scaled-e1601306850589-600x600

Rose Lopez

Outreach and Programs Manager

Rose Lopez believes in the power of a good story. She has also taught creative writing at the undergraduate level and, for more than two years, tutored minority and first-generation college students on their academic writing. She is passionate about making educational opportunities available to all. Rose has taken on unpaid internships in the past, but now the only job she does for free is raising her two daughters. She will graduate in Fall 2020 with her Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Florida International University. She has drafted op-eds on social, economic, and reproductive justice for major non-profit organizations. Her creative writing has appeared or is forthcoming in Big Muddy Journal, the Drunken Odyssey, and the Normal School. Rose is also a proud Army veteran.