This morning I called Graham Vyse, a communications aide to Gov.-elect Lincoln Chafee, hoping to get him to leak some information to me. (To his credit and my dismay, he didn’t take the bait.) In the course of our conversation, I happened to mention the pioneering online magazine Slate, which I’ve been reading since my college days.

Funny you should mention that, Vyse said – it turns out he was an intern there earlier this year, with four bylines to his credit and three other shout-outs as a research assistant. Not only that, but the three Slate writers he worked with were the magazine’s all-stars: Dahlia Lithwick, Tim Noah and Jack Shafer. Vyse’s solo articles were an “Explainer” about the term “vegetative” and a profile of the conservative activist Jason Mattera.

Suitably impressed by the news, I asked Vyse how he managed to get inside one of the country’s most influential publications. “I applied,” the Westerly High grad and American University senior said. Fair enough. “I loved it,” he added. “It was a great opportunity to work with some incredibly talented journalists.”

Vyse took this semester off to work for the Chafee campaign (and now the transition), but he says he plans to return to American in January to finish his final semester and graduate in May. After that, his plans are up in the air – but it sounds like he won’t lack for connections.