Exonians Reflect on Term Abroad in Washington D.C.
Hello Exonians on campus! While some of you are finishing up your 333’s and enjoying the warmer weather, we, the 12 members of the graduating class of 2016, are having the time of our lives interning for the Congress of the United States in the beautiful city of Washington D.C.! Down here, we are staying in the gorgeous and spacious Capitol Hill Hotel, which many of us (especially the day students) have come to call “the dorm.” Right across from the Library of Congress, it’s conveniently located in the heart of Capitol Hill. Each morning, we are only a few minutes walk away from the House office buildings. U.S. Senate-side interns only have to walk three or four more blocks, passing the Supreme Court and Capitol Building. Most of us will walk through the Capitol at least once each day, and at night, it’s a short walk to watch the sun sink down the brilliantly lit red sky behind the Washington Monument.
Most of us will work Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. with up to an hour for lunch and a 9-5 schedule when either the House or the Senate is in recess. The lunch and dinner options, by the way, are quite nice. No more dining hall for us. With hot breakfast included at the hotel, we get a daily allowance of $28, which is usually quite sufficient to any of our needs. (There is a vegan, a pescaterian and someone allergic to chlorophyll on our trip). Many of us on the Senate side will grab lunch at the Dirksen Senate Cafeteria, where the choices range from gorgeous salads and sizable slices of pizza to platters of sushi and miso soup at Penang prices and Singapore quality. In the evenings and on the weekends, we will go out or stay in and cook together (the rooms are equipped with a small kitchen, and there are weekly grocery trips.) There are also plenty of lunches and receptions held by organizations, where you can enjoy some free food, while listening to a panel of experts discuss the Tunisian revolution, the future of America’s sustainable energy or even a panel on the implications of the Zika Virus in Latin America.
“I have really enjoyed the freedom that working here has offered me.”
But back to the offices. Here is how senior Chad Qian described his experience in the office: “I work for Senator Dan Coats of Indiana. It’s nice working for him, since I grew up in Indiana. My typical day consists of sorting through mail and faxes and answering phone calls, along with the occasional Capitol tour we give to constituents. Other interns have done a lot of research and writing for their Senators too. What you do will vary from office to office. Whenever I have a little more free time, I read magazines or go to briefings, which are plentiful here on the Hill, and touch on every issue from encryption to climate change and North Korea to criminal justice reform. You sometimes even see famous politicians just walking around (I’ve seen Paul Ryan, John McCain and Ted Cruz).”
Each week we also have an opportunity to meet with at least one alumni. The amazing seminar part of the program invites people from all walks of life: lobbyists, lawyers, politicians and journalists. Each of them has had something to offer. Many of us particularly enjoyed getting to meet Senator Tim Wirth (D-CO). He had that sincere personality of cooperation that always seems to be missing from the frankest discussions. We have also been lucky to attend the Washington area alumni reception, where we got to catch up with some of our teachers, talk to even more alumni and meet some of the newest people in the Exeter community—members of the class of 2020, all of whom will be coming to campus next fall as preps.
Other than that we are pretty much free to explore the city. When asked about going out on the town, senior Webb Harrington noted “I have really enjoyed the freedom that working here has offered me. Not only is there a great deal of freedom at the office, to pursue topics that interest you, to learn from true experts and to try a great variety of projects, all of which make a difference, but there is a great amount of freedom of movement in the program itself. D.C. is our playground. Not only is Washington D.C. one of the greatest tourist attractions in the United States for its museums and memorials, but there are also the tangible benefits of being around so much impressive construction. There is just something about walking to work by the Supreme Court every day, or walking through the Capitol building every day, or even just having the Washington Monument to view in the sunset at the end of each day.”
Every weekend there are incredible events around the city. Just this past weekend, each of the embassies in town introduced us and many other visitors to a small piece of their nation by offering native food, dance and information about the immigrants from that country in our nation of immigrants.
Senior Stina Kurochkina recounted her own story about visiting the National Archives here in DC. “I remember last year in history 332 we learned about new, more limiting immigration policies in the Progressive Era. The sequence, I think, gave me a good overview of the arch of the American history, and I enjoyed it. However, I didn’t get a more personal feel of what immigration policies meant until the weekend Annie and I went down to the National Archives.”
She continued, “one of the first documents that grabbed my attention upon entering was a marriage contract between an American woman and a foreigner man. By signing that contract the woman was signing away her U.S. citizenship and becoming a citizen of another country. It could only be restored in case of divorce through appealing to the court. That blew my mind. It made every issue of women’s rights and immigration tangible. It personalized them. The same I think is true about our work in the offices. All of a sudden you learn that the world is more controversial and more subtle, and you can feel these subtleties.”
All in all, living here in Washington D.C. has been one of the best experiences of our lives, and we hope that everyone has been having as much fun as us. Happy news and smiles from Washington! See you soon when we are back on campus before graduation.
The Washington Interns (With special thanks to Webb Harrington, Stina Kurochkina and Chad Qian)
If you have any interest in learning about applying to the Washington Internship program, please contact Dr.Wade at ewade@exeter.edu.