Some lessons are learned outside of the classroom. And this past summer, Pillow Academy graduate Sunjay Chawla gained a wealth of knowledge from experiences away from his college campus at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas.
Chawla spent two months in Washington, D.C., completing two internships, and now he’s back at SMU balancing a third between his classes and student activities.
In June, Chawla interned at the Capitol in the office of U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss. In July, he interned as assistant to the managing director of the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C.
“Summer was just an incredible experience,” said the 20-year-old.
Then, at the beginning of September, Chawla began a four-month internship in the Donor Relations office of the George W. Bush Presidential Library in Dallas.
“I feel incredibly fortunate and blessed to have these opportunities,” said Chawla, the son of Suresh and Gauri Chawla of Greenwood. “I know they wouldn’t have been possible without the upbringing and the morals my family and my parents taught me and my sister and the desire and hunger to achieve, to push yourself, to strive for that success.”
Sunjay Chawla stands outside of the George W. Bush Presidential Library, where he began working as an intern this month.
He is a 2019 graduate of Pillow, where he was class valedictorian. Chawla is an Eagle Scout and was selected as the 2018 National High School Heisman award winner, annually given to the top student athlete in the nation.
At SMU, Chawla is a finance major with a specialization in alternative asset management. He is an officer in the Indian Association and an officer of Sigma Nu Fraternity. He is a member of the Chancellor’s Honor Roll, maintaining a 4.0 grade point average.
In June, Chawla began working for Wicker after having applied for the position and being accepted.
Sunjay Chawla stands with Mississippi Sen. Roger Wicker outside of Wicker's office.
He had a variety of duties at Capitol Hill. He took notes during meetings of committees to which Wicker belongs, such as the Committee on Finance. He researched a variety of topics for the staff assistants, and he escorted ambassadors into the Dirksen Senate Office Building. “We got to meet and talk with ambassadors from different countries, which was a very cool experience, for sure,” said Chawla.
One of the intern’s bigger responsibilities was working the phone. Chawla said each intern worked the phones for one week. It’s an experience that taught him many valuable lessons.
“You get to be one on one with Mississippi constituents and see what the people really want, what their opinions are, learn how to delegate, converse with people you’ve never met before,” Chawla said. “It’s especially important to learn how to deal with people who don’t necessarily align with what the senator believes or what he is doing and help reach a conclusion to where every party is happy. ... That was the best training you can get, whether that’s professionally or socially.”
Chawla had many memorable experiences during the month he worked at the Capitol, including seeing several recognizable politicians on a daily basis.
Underneath the Dirksen Senate Office Building is a small subway system with trolleys.
“We’d be riding that, and walking beside us while we were going would be Ted Cruz or Bernie Sanders,” said Chawla. “Just seeing these huge public figures so close ... it’s eye-opening to realize that these public political figures are regular people like us, too.”
Chawla met politicians such as Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, and took photos with them.
Sunjay Chawla stands outside the U.S. Senate lunch room with Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.
On his way to a press conference, Sunjay Chawla met and talked with Utah Sen. Mitt Romney.
He said, however, the senator he most enjoyed meeting was Wicker.
“That, by far, was the best experience,” he said. “I’m not just saying that because he’s our senator; he is just one of the best individuals I’ve ever gotten to meet, and someone everyone in the state of Mississippi should look up to.”
At the beginning of July, Chawla made the switch from the public sector to the private sector, as he began a four-week internship at the Trump International Hotel.
Sunjay Chawla is presented a cake by the executive staff of the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., on his last day of work for the Trump hotel.
At the luxury five-star hotel, he worked in a variety of departments, including housekeeping, marketing and rate management, revenue management and finance.
“It was eye-opening to see how five-star properties like that run,” said Chawla, whose father is president of Delta Lodging Group, the largest privately owned limited-service hotel management company in Mississippi. “Coming from my family’s background in the hotel business, we’re certainly not exposed to the numbers and types of operations that these five-star properties are operating on every single day.”
Chawla said working for The Trump Organization was an incredible experience.
“I’ve never seen a more professionally run organization in my life,” he added.
Chawla said he enjoyed his four weeks at the hotel, and on his last day, the staff surprised him with a party in his honor, which included receiving a box of confections made by the hotel’s pastry chef.
He said that “meant so much because I was only there for four weeks. The fact that they made me feel at home from day one, made me feel like a true part of the team, that’s just a feeling you can’t fake. They really cared for me, and I truly cared for them.”
What department did Chawla enjoy most during his internship at the Trump hotel?
“My favorite department — my mom is going to love this — was housekeeping,” he said.
At first, Chawla thought it was sort of humorous being placed in the housekeeping department, especially since “folding laundry is more than enough for me, and I can barely do that.”
But working in the housekeeping department was another eye-opening experience for Chawla.
“To actually be inspecting rooms at a five-star property, cleaning the rooms, was an incredible experience because it taught me that there’s no such thing as a job being too small for anyone,” he said. “The housekeeping department at any property is the backbone of the operation. Without clean rooms, without rooms up to the standards of the customers, no one is going to come.”
But it was the people working in the housekeeping department who Chawla found inspirational.
He said he met people who were lawyers, engineers and scientists in their native countries and had immigrated to the U.S.
“These are all incredibly smart people who came to America for a new opportunity,” he said.
They had “comfortable lives and they are willing to sacrifice everything to come to America and work for an organization like The Trump Organization, and they are willing to rebuild just for the sake of the freedoms this country has to offer,” Chawla added. “I think that speaks at length to what we as Americans need to see more of and be more grateful for — that people are willing to sacrifice so much just to get a taste of the freedoms that we have.”
After returning to college for the fall semester at SMU, Chawla wanted to continue gaining professional experience outside of the classroom. So he decided on an internship at the George W. Bush Presidential Library.
“This is definitely something I’m enjoying,” he said. “President Bush’s presidential library is right on our campus. It was an opportunity there for the taking.”
He works in donor relations, soliciting funds and doing research to find potential new donors.
“It’s just incredible the people I’m getting to meet and work with and just being associated with a past president of the United States is probably the biggest honor that I’ve ever had.”
Chawla said after graduating from college he is interested in either going back to Washington, D.C., and working at Capitol Hill or entering the financial world and working as an analyst — he’ll learn more about that next summer when he interns at the Stephens Group in Little Rock, Arkansas.
Signaling an SMU victory sign outside of the Senate lunch room are, from left, Trent Lott III of Louisville, Kentucky; Sunjay Chawla of Greenwood; Texas Sen. Ted Cruz; and Warren Scott of Jackson.
During the summer, he said the best experience he had was spending the Fourth of July on the National Mall watching the famous fireworks show.
“The true feeling of patriotism over there, that’s certainly a feeling and experience I’ll never forget,” he said. “Being able to serve alongside one of our great leaders of Mississippi just added to the incredible amount of pride that I have for being from Mississippi and created a deeper desire to help this state reach its true potential.”
- Contact Ruthie Robison at 581-7235 or rrobison@gwcommonwealth.com.
