The White House, Capitol Hill and a bustling city full of political agendas. The place where life changing decisions get made for an entire country; and it’s only 21 square blocks. This is where Vandegrift alum Kelly Rosenblatt works; in the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

“The Chamber of Commerce is a trades association; we’re a business lobby and a public advocacy organization, we advocate for business in America,” Kelly said. “We work on helping advance policies that better the business community.” 

Previously, Kelly worked as an intern at the U.S. Chamber for two summers while in college. Now Kelly’s official title is a Project Manager for Digital Operations at the Chamber. While being on social media for work sounds simple and fun, there are actually many facets to her position.

“I help with scheduling our social posts and scheduling meetings to help with organic social media strategy,” Kelly said. “Instagram is one of the main platforms that I have been working on. One of my passion projects is to try and grow our audience on the Chamber’s Instagram.” 

Kelly graduated from Vandegrift in 2015, and college in 2019. Her interest in social media and communications work stemmed from many sources, one of them being her time on the newspaper staff in high school.

“I took the intro to journalism class my freshman year of high school and I really liked it,” Kelly said. “I signed up for the Vandegrift Voice, and I worked on the Voice for all of high school, and I was the Editor in Chief my senior year.”

Her interest only grew at the College of Charleston, where she decided on which path she’d like her career to take. Even after the years at college and now working in D.C., her spark for communications hasn’t dimmed.

“In college, I found a course that really inspired me to go into communications,” Kelly said.  “And sometimes I see different things on TV and think about how it could be a comms study, and I’m just kind of a nerd about it now.”

Working in communications and social media is hard work. , It takes outside life adjustments to keep up with the ever changing online community as well as the news cycle, especially in  Washington D.C.

“You have to kind of be on your A game at all times,” Kelly said. “And you have to know what’s going on in order to understand the ramifications of the work you do.”

In order to keep up, Kelly has to use her personal time to really know what’s going on, and how it will affect the association.

“When I go on my morning walks, I knock out two of my news podcasts every day,” Kelly said. “In my specific field, I have to be really conscious of what’s going on politically.”

Currently, Kelly is pushing to reach younger audiences through new platforms. If she can reach the minds of the next generation, she might be able to show them how their business could help their own communities. 

“It would be great if a young entrepreneur were to find our content on Instagram and see all of the good that business can do for the community,” Kelly said.

Kelly has done some searching of her own for these businesses, writing about them online at the Chamber’s website. 

“At the start of COVID-19 SweetGreen started donating a bunch of salads to frontline health care workers and people who just didn’t have time or access,” Kelly said.

Even more local businesses started doing their part for the community, and it did not go unnoticed by Kelly.

“We’re partnering with Compass Coffee on a bipartisan conversation series called Common Grounds,” Kelly said. “They shifted production from making their vanilla syrup products to making hand sanitizer at the beginning of the pandemic.”

Kelly’s keen eye for communications has led to many stories being shared on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce blog, Above The Fold.. However, her passion in her field took a lot of time and devotion, which she has some advice for.

“The best advice I can give is take advantage of every opportunity that comes your way and apply yourself,” Kelly said. “Don’t put too much pressure on yourself to be the best; just be your best.”