College of the Canyons student Valente Montes is asking the Santa Clarita Valley for help to experience a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
Montes, 19, of Santa Clarita, is interning at the Santa Clarita office for Congressman Buck McKeon, R-Santa Clarita. However, after he heard about an internship for McKeon’s office in Washington D.C., he applied, interviewed and got the job.
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“I talked to the district director about possibly interning in Washington D.C.,” Montes said. “After a few days and a 30-minute interview, I was told I was going to Washington.”
Montes has always found the intricacies of congress interesting, he said.
“There are a lot of different components in the U.S. government,” and that he has been interested in them since high school.
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He will be interning for an entire semester in the Congressman’s office at the Rayburn House of Representatives Building in the nation’s capital starting in the fall.
Montes was raised in Burbank, and moved to Santa Clarita after graduating from Burbank High School.
He is a second-year political science major at College of the Canyons and works at a restaurant in the Valencia Town Center.
Montes says that he, “doesn’t come from a privileged family,” and that he had a “humble upbringing”.
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He was raised by his single mother who worked and attended school while raising her son, he said.
Montes is trying to raise the funds he needs to offset the cost of moving and living in a different state, he said, and estimates that he’ll need about $7,500.
He set up a crowdfunding website through gofundme.com and is asking people to help him by donating to his cause.
Montes has high hopes for his future in politics, saying, “I believe that I could serve the American people someday,” and hopes that people will, “invest,” in his future.
The website is Valentemontes.com and as of Wednesday, Montes has already raised $1,670 in donations.
SCVTV contributed to this report.
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