WASHINGTON — Roughly 14 years ago, two interns in their early 20s overlapped in Rep. Steny H. Hoyer’s minority whip office. They sat at neighboring desks, talking occasionally.

Now one is a member of Congress herself, and the other is her chief of staff. For Rep. Sarah Elfreth, a freshman Democrat from Maryland, hiring Jamie DeAtley was an easy decision, thanks to the Hill experience he built after their paths diverged.

It was a good fit for DeAtley, too, given his new boss’ reputation in the state Senate as a policy wonk who had the legislative wins to show for it.

Back when they were interns in 2011, they didn’t see this coming, both said in an interview this month. Elfreth was a New Jersey kid who went to Towson University and made the Old Line State her home. During college, she was appointed to be a student member of the University System of Maryland Board of Regents by then-Gov. Martin O’Malley. That’s when she first met Hoyer at a commencement where each spoke. “He is the kind of public servant I wanted to be,” she said.

DeAtley had an advantage: He was from Hoyer’s southern Maryland district, and his mom worked for an educational program named after the congressman’s late first wife. “To me, he was always Congressman Hoyer from Mechanicsville [in St. Mary’s County].”

They remember typical intern tasks, like answering the phones and reloading the copy machine. DeAtley gave tours of the Capitol, and Elfreth helped Terry Lierman, then Hoyer’s chief of staff, sign into his Gmail account. They “stood guard” at whip meetings and helped set up events.

Like most interns, they learned on the job. Elfreth remembers icing down some beers for a reception with labor organizers, and then “it occurred to someone that the beer wasn’t union-made.” Fishing the drinks out of the cooler, she dried them off and put them away.

It was a busy time for Elfreth: graduate school, a part-time job at Johns Hopkins University in the government affairs office, and the unpaid Hoyer internship two days a week. As for DeAtley, he was a “mostly directionless 20-something” who found his calling. When his internship ended in 2012, he was hired by Hoyer’s personal office as a staff assistant.

Meanwhile, Elfreth went on to other things. At one point, they met for coffee, where she dished out career advice from her time in the lobbying world, working for the National Aquarium in Baltimore. Though they shared some friends in political circles, they were on different trajectories: DeAtley was climbing the ranks in then-Rep. Anthony Brown’s office, before returning to work for Hoyer, handling his appropriations portfolio. Elfreth was running for office, becoming the youngest woman to serve in the Maryland state Senate. Then, she ran for Congress.

When Elfreth won a hard-fought primary over former Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn last spring, she started to plan, knowing she was headed for a general election win in the solidly Democratic 3rd District.

After an informal test-run to see if their working styles meshed, DeAtley signed on for the chief of staff job, which he officially began this month. They described a shared mantra (“We don’t get to stress out about things that are out of our control”) and a collaborative vision.

“I don’t like to make decisions without talking it through and thinking it through and getting a ton of advice on things,” said Elfreth, who will serve on the Natural Resources and Armed Services committees.

Asked about his former interns, Hoyer said he wasn’t surprised to see Elfreth land in Congress. He may have nearly 44 years in the House and counting, but “she is gonna be better than me,” he predicted.

For DeAtley, that early internship set the course for his career, and unlike back then, lawmakers can now tap into designated funds to pay their interns. “I had a fantastic experience interning on the Hill … and I think it’s a great first step,” he said.

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