Washington Experience offers students unique opportunity in D.C. Area

This is the Washington Experience in Government and International Affairs. It is about bringing students together in a combined experiential and classroom curriculum. Immediately first day, we're off to the embassies, the Combian Embassy and the Panamanian Embassy. We did FEMA. A location that was kind of a WeWork for NGOs. American Beverage Association. Think tanks like Brookings and AEI. Next thing we know, we're in Congress. I hope that they take away a sense of the possibilities involved in working in or around government in Washington, D.C. It's been an amazing experience. You know, I've been to DC plenty of times, but it's really different. We've gotten to meet with so many people, find out about so many jobs that I otherwise wouldn't know about. It's expanded my horizons a lot. I've gotten to talk to so many experts. And we just have a bunch of guest speakers who are just so knowledgeable and have so much expertise behind them and just to hear what they have to say about contemporary problems. Just being able to ask my genuine questions that without much fear of looking dumb or sounding stupid, and a lot of them were understanding of our questions. The course has been a lot of fun when you go around DC meeting all these important people and these important organizations, and it's very motivating. Like, after every day, I'm like, I'm going to go work on my resume, and I'm going to go put this on my resume. It's an opportunity that a lot of equivalent institutions don't have. You're talking to diplomats, you're talking to congressmen, you're talking to heads of think tanks. We're here, right. SPIA, the School of Public and International Affairs, has a permanent duty station here in Northern Virginia, which is just across the river from all the action in DC. So many times throughout the experience, I thought it's one thing to be seated in Blacksburg, to get classes on theory and history and be taking your notes. It's another thing to be here in DC, to enter a conference room, to have a seat at the table, and then to be able to have a dialogue with all these different experts. I think it's so unique, and I recommend anyone to do it. It's a once in a lifetime experience.