Maria Jeffrey

My name is Maria Jeffrey, and I am an HAB graduate, class of 2011. I am currently a Political Director for the National Federation of Republican Women. I run NFRW's political education and training programs including a traveling campaign management school and focus groups with women in states with key races. During campaign seasons, I organize NFRW's grassroots leaders across the country for candidate rallies and "grassroots days." In addition, I write the biweekly newsletters read by NFRW members nationwide.

I also book speakers for NFRW meetings and functions, which in the past have included Senators Rand Paul, Richard Burr, Mike Enzi, Lisa Murkowski, and Johnny Isakson; former House Speaker Newt Gingrich; House Republican Conference Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers; New York Times bestselling author Ben Shapiro; Political Commentator Alex Castellanos; Republican National Committee Co-Chair Sharon Day; New York Times bestselling author Dinesh D'Souza; and many more.

Previously, I interned for Senator Rand Paul and worked as a fact-checker for his FY 2013 budget proposal, wrote letters explaining legislation to constituents, and was solely responsible for giving tours of the Capitol to Kentucky constituents who visited through Senator Paul's office. One of my greatest successes in this capacity was when I convinced Senator Paul to speak at one of my meetings the day after his 13-hour filibuster on March 6, 2013.

A couple of things about how HAB has helped my career in politics: when I came back to the DC area from Xavier the day after graduation, I decided on the drive home that I wanted to work on the Hill. The next month I had a meeting with a lawyer on the Joint Economic Committee minority staff. When I handed him my resume the first question he asked me was, "What did you major in?" When I replied, "Classics, with a focus on the Greek and Latin languages," he said, "Oh thank God. I thought you were going to say Political Science." He said I would stick out of the crowd because of my choice of study.

The bottom line is that in the three years since I've graduated from HAB, I've done very well establishing a career in politics: having studied Greek, Latin, and Philosophy as an HAB has only helped my career. It has never hindered it. I would absolutely do HAB over again. I have never regretted committing to the HAB program even when I hadn't slept in 50 hours and was trying to make sense of Sophocles.