Ellie Borowiak is a junior from Raleigh, North Carolina and an alumna of the Tocqueville Fellowship. This semester, she will be interning at the Supreme Court of the United States’ Public Information Office as a part of the Supreme Court Internship Program.
Although Ellie “never saw [herself] leaving the East Coast for college,” she applied to Notre Dame after her mom encouraged her to look into the school. After she got in, Ellie “absolutely fell in love with the school and was impressed by the work-life balance that Notre Dame students were able to find.” She knew it would be the perfect place to carry out her undergraduate studies.
Having always been interested in the American constitutional tradition, Ellie decided to pursue a course of studies focused on law and politics, with the hopes that her studies would prepare her for law school in the future. “I have wanted to study law and politics since my high school AP Government class did moot oral arguments of landmark Supreme Court cases,” she said. In addition to a major in political science, she is pursuing minors in constitutional studies and French. “I am passionate about constitutional law,” Ellie told the CCCG, “and my majors and minors give me ample opportunity to pursue this passion.”
Ellie supplements these classroom pursuits with a number of extracurricular activities. In the academic realm, Ellie has served as a research assistant for Dr. Rachel Porter on projects through the Department of Political Science. She was also a member of the CCCG’s Tocqueville Fellowship during the Fall 2024 semester. Ellie credits these activities with preparing her for her internship “by bolstering [her] interpersonal communication skills and fostering essential conversations across political ideologies.” According to Ellie, the Tocqueville Fellowship in particular “has upheld and deepened [her] passion for constitutional law,” giving her skills that she intends to carry with her as she interns at the Supreme Court.
For Ellie, “working at the Supreme Court has always been a dream.” She initially found out about the Supreme Court Internship Program a few years ago and knew it was something she wanted to do. This program places students in support roles across the Court and is reserved for high-achieving American undergraduates. Ellie is “looking forward to the opportunity to soak up all that the Supreme Court Internship Program, as well as Notre Dame’s Washington Program, has to offer.”
According to Ellie, one of the best ways to pursue similar opportunities is to “truly engage with the courses that the Center [for Citizenship and Constitutional Government] and the political science department have to offer.” Ellie recalls that, in particular, courses “such as Prof. Christina Bambrick’s ‘Constitutional Law: Powers and Institutions’ and Prof. David Campbell’s ‘Religion in American Politics’ helped [her] to grow in [her] understanding of our American government and the Supreme Court.” She continued to remark that such learning experiences are “essential to obtaining an internship in this field.” Ellie recommends that students interested in a similar trajectory take and fully engage in such courses.
After she graduates, Ellie hopes to go to law school and one day work in constitutional law. She also hopes to clerk in the federal judiciary. Ellie believes that “this internship will begin to prepare her for her studies in law school and the skills needed to succeed in a legal career.”
To learn more about the Tocqueville Fellowship Program, visit our webpage.