Seamless Lives of Faith | 1 Chronicles 29:11

Richie Cummings ‘25

“Yours, O Lord, is greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head above all.”

As we inaugurate a new president into office this week, it's important to remember who the real ruler of the world is and to whom all the power and glory belongs. This week was a big week for our Fellows class, including both the inauguration and the March for Life. Almost half of the fellows were able to get inauguration tickets through their respective senators, and our director was able to secure tickets for the rest of us. It was going to be a big Fellows event - but unfortunately, the inauguration was moved inside. However, I was fortunate enough to tag along with Jules Jensen, our fellow who works in Senator Daines’ office, and Rachel Guerra, our fellow who worked at the Heritage Foundation over the summer, for the Inauguration Day activities. Jules was able to get us into the Senator’s office building, where we got to watch the first part of the inauguration in Senator Daines’ office. We were joined by some of the fine people from Montana who had originally secured inauguration tickets. It was cool to see the Senate office building and experience the office of a US Senator. We then moved our inauguration party to the Heritage Foundation building, where we watched the swearing in and the inaugural speech. Although being part of the crowd at the official inauguration ceremony itself would have been very cool, experiencing the excitement of the day with friends in the warmth of office buildings wasn’t so bad. 

For me, this was the first full workweek after the Christmas break. I was able to work remotely over the break, so as not to fall too far behind. This week was largely focused around training under an analyst to learn how to perform a part of her role. Since she is leaving the company, I will be taking on some of her responsibilities in an interim role. It was challenging but fun to learn a new role at the company, and I am honored to be trusted with supplementing her work over the next couple of weeks. 

The last major event of the week was the March for Life. The Fellows again were fortunate enough to be invited to a coffee hour at Advancing American Freedom, where we had the honor of meeting Vice President Mike Pence! The March itself was an amazing experience. It was inspiring to see so many people out and marching for something they believe in.