Ben
Blank remembers a slogan from a Notre Dame commercial:
"Our campus is in
South Bend. Our classroom is the world."
In his first two
years as a Notre Dame student, Blank has experienced as much of
the world as he has of campus.
Since transferring
to Notre Dame in 2001 following a year at the University of Pittsburgh,
the senior has spent 5½ months in Japan and the same amount of
time assisting President Bush's chief political strategist, Karl
Rove, as an intern in Washington. At the end of the internship
he was welcomed into another organization that boasts of its opportunities
to see the world -- the Navy -- into which he was inducted during
a ceremony held inside the White House.
After just one semester
in South Bend, Blank took off for Japan, where he studied the
country's language, culture and business practices as part of
the University's study-abroad program. Returning to campus in
fall 2002, the finance major then decided to apply to the University's
Washington, D.C., program.
The resident of O'Neill
Hall recalls that he was filling out the application for the program
when he noticed a photo on one of the dorm walls. It showed hall
benefactor Joe O'Neill '67 with longtime friend George W. Bush
(O'Neill and his wife, Jan, actually introduced Bush to his future
wife, Laura). Blank later learned that Joe O'Neill was returning
to campus to speak later in the semester. The student arranged
to meet with him.
The O'Neills encouraged
Blank to apply for an internship at the White House and said the
president had a particular fondness for Notre Dame. They told
him Bush had visited Notre Dame at least as many times as he had
his alma mater, Yale.
Two weeks after faxing
in his White House application, Blank received a phone call from
Rove's office asking for an interview. That was on a Monday. After
a half-hour of questioning, another interview was scheduled for
Friday. But the next day he received another call.
They wanted to know
if he'd made his flight arrangements yet.
"What was lost in
that [first] conversation was that the interview was at the White
House," Blank said.
When he finally made
it to Washington, the interview was conducted by four White House
aides and lasted an hour. (First question: "Name everyone you
can think of in the Bush administration.") Luckily, Blank had
prepared for such an interrogation. "I was ready for tough questions.
. . . I studied up the week before." His efforts paid off. At
the conclusion of the interview, he was offered the position in
Rove's office.
His duties there
included preparing documents and political briefings for Bush
and taking phone calls. "[The caller] could be anyone from a woman
in Kansas City spouting off, to Bernard Cardinal Law, to Arnold
Schwarzenegger to Newt Gingrich."
What did Blank think
of Rove, rumored to be controlling and domineering?
"He's funny.
When he met me, he said something like, 'Aren't you the student
that goes to that small, not-well-known school in Indiana. . .
. I think they have a football team?'"
During his time in
Rove's office, Blank was also waiting to hear back on his application
to the Navy. In July 2002 he had applied to the Navy's Bachelor's
Degree Completion Program, which would allow him to finish school
and then enter the Navy. He intends to work in the Supply Corps,
the unit that accounts for everything that goes on and off the
Navy's ships.
When a Navy rep called
in March 2003 to say he'd been accepted, Blank mentioned that
he was working in Rove's office. After he coordinated matters
with both the Navy and his superiors in the office, his commissioning
was arranged for the White House.
Bush did not attend,
but Blank and his parents happened to see the president and first
lady wave as their helicopter took off from the South Lawn of
the White House. The swearing-in took place in the White House's
Indian Treaty Room, formerly the Naval Library. Blank was commissioned
an ensign, the same rank as a Naval Academy graduate.
After his expected
2004 graduation from Notre Dame, Blank will have 13 weeks of officer
training school and six months of supply school before heading
to, he hopes, a posting in Japan.
When that happens,
the world may no longer be his classroom . . . but it might be
his office.
(January 2004)
