Step aside, Mr. Smith. Elizabeth Kringer is going to Washington.
 
Kringer, a senior Public Service major at Middle Georgia State University, is one of 30 students chosen from nearly 300 applicants who is spending spring semester in Washington, D.C., as an intern for the Democratic National Committee.
 
From January 12 through May 6, Kringer will live in a Senate Square condo with seven other interns, including students enrolled at Yale, Dartmouth and Johns Hopkins.  Among other things, she will prepare briefings for the chief executive officer’s department and work on projects related to voter rights and protection.
 
“I’m extremely nervous,” Kringer said in an interview the day before she and her parents planned a pre-dawn departure for the 11-hour drive to Washington. “But I’m also very excited about the doors this will open.”
 
At 21, Kringer might not be aware of the classic film “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.” She knows her politics, though.
 
The Covington native remembers as a small child following with fascination the post-electoral controversy of the 2000 Bush v. Gore presidential race, hanging chads and all. As a homeschooled third-grader, she wrote a paper about the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle’s influence on James Madison, the fourth president and “Father of the Constitution.”
 
Somehow avoiding the clutches of cynicism, she grew up trusting that the political process is mostly a force for good, something she still believes.
 
“You can’t allow yourself to get cynical,” Kringer said. “When you get cynical you stop voting and when you stop voting you end up with people in office who don’t support your values.”
 
Not long after enrolling at Middle Georgia State in 2012, Kringer became Macon Campus director of the Student Government Association. She credits that experience with helping her overcome shyness and go on to intern for two Georgia congressmen, Sanford Bishop and Hank Johnson. She later became  a regional director for the Young Democrats of Georgia.
 
She’s marked time in the political trenches - staffing call centers, working voter registration drives, networking at conferences.
 
Through the Young Democrats, she has met two of the three major Democratic candidates – Hillary Clinton and Martin O’Malley - currently running for president. She hopes to meet Bernie Sanders.
 
As long as she is a party committee intern, Kringer cannot openly support any particular candidate. That ends when she attends July’s Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.
 
And to think, Kringer almost didn’t apply for the internship.
 
“I was afraid I wouldn’t get in,” she admitted. “I overcame the fear and applied at the last minute.”
 
She didn’t tell family members until she was selected. They “freaked out,” as Kringer put it, and immediately went to work helping her raise the $5,000 she needed to pay for her housing during her months in Washington. A GoFundMe account netted the entire amount in two weeks. Family and friends – even those who identify as Republicans - are chipping in to help with her other expenses.
 
Kringer is on track to graduate from Middle Georgia State in fall 2016. She plans to go to law school and, eventually, run for a seat in the state legislature, where she believes she can do the most good for Georgia citizens.
 
For now she is focusing on her internship, which will also include her participation in a community service project and tours of the U.S. Capitol, The White House, Department of State and the Pentagon.
 
“It’s such a pivotal time to be there,” Kringer said. “People from all walks of life are going to be on Capitol Hill.”