President's Day Part 1

As always you can go to the group's flickr page for more photos.

On February 15, most of us got the day off for Washington's Birthday (The official, government name for President's Day). All federal offices, but some people working in the private sector had to go in to work and were not able to join us. For me, it was my 10th day off from work in a row. With two weekends, the federal government shut down for snow, and my boss kind enough to give me Friday off as well, this acted as sort of a mid-winter/spring break.

Most CMC students know that one of the perks of the school is that if we get enough people to go to an activity together, we can get funding from Jim Nauls at the Dean of Student's office. Many people on campus use this for things such as tickets to an Angels game, a concert, or Universal Studios. One of the neat things about the DC program is that you are still eligible for money from Jim Nauls. With Monday off for Washington's birthday, we decided to try out Fogo de Chao.


For those of you who have never experienced Fogo de Chao, it can be a little overwhelming at first. It's pretty much an all-you-can eat steakhouse, with a massive salad bar. You have a coaster, with one side red and one side green. Red means stop, green means go. If you're ready for meat, there are servers assigned to each dish, and they will come to your table and see if you would like any. These range from filet mignon to chicken breast wrapped in bacon. They will pretty much come at you non-stop until you tell turn your card over. You can see one of them serving Isaac in the first picture. The best part was that instead of being the usual $40 for lunch, it turned out to be about $12 per person because of the generous support of CMC.

Orientation Day 4

As always you can see more on the group's flickr page.
Sorry for the long delay between posts.

Our fourth and final day of orientation started bright and early with a 8:30 tour at the Pentagon. Getting off the Metro, you could tell that this wasn't a normal Metro Station. We were greeted at the top of the escalators by a Police Officer with a some sort of scary looking automatic rifle. After going through security, we met up with CMC and program alum TJ Devine (on the left in the picture below). In addition to setting us up with the tour, he helped Ben F. get set up with his internship at the Defense Department. We were split into two groups for the tour, which was given by members of various military branches. My tour was given by someone from the Air Force and one person from the Navy. We did quite a lot of walking. Although most of the time we spent was in the hallways (people do indeed work there), we learned a lot of fun facts about both the military and the Pentagon itself. For instance, the Soviets used to think that the building inside of the Pentagon rings, was some sort of nuclear bunker, when in truth it was a hot dog stand.

After the tour, we went to a local shopping mall and Costco to pick up some things for the various apartments before our lunch with CMC and program alum Andy Barr from the Politico. We needed to drop off the items before lunch, so we stopped by Ben's apartment and got a nice look around. We went to Cosi for lunch, which CMC was nice enough to pay for. We met up with Andy there and headed over to the offices of the Politico.It turns out Politico shares facilities with the local Washington ABC station. At the Politico, we got to meet in the executive meeting room. Andy talked to us about the always evolving news business and how Politico is adapting to it. He brought in a couple other writers. One was in charge of the new "Politico 44" which focuses on the Obama administration. He discussed how the project started, and how the focus of it has evolved since the beginning. He mentioned that they try to get Obama news up on the website within 2 to 3 minutes of it happening. We also talked with Anne Mullins who is the gossip columnist for the Politico. She told us how she got to her position and what it entails. She likes to know who is at what. Whether it is a congressman at a fundraiser or an important staffer at a cocktail party.

After our time at the Politico, our orientation was officially over. However, the CMC Alumni Association in Washington was nice enough to buy us tickets to the Wizards/Clippers basketball game on Sunday, the 24th. It was nice to talk with alumni working in Washington before we started our first days at work.

Orientation Day 3

As always, you can go to the group's flickr page for more pictures. Also, sorry this blog post is a bit lengthy.

For the third day of orientation, we went to the Capitol for an 11:45 tour with program alum Tyler White (far left in the above picture). He currently works in Congressman Jerry Lewis' office. During the program he interned on Capitol Hill, but for a different Congressman. After asking us about our living arrangements and catching up with Dr. Spalding, we started the tour by going up to the House Gallery, where we could watch as Congressmen cast votes and simply chatted amongst themselves. Before we went in we had to surrender all our electronics, including Tyler who is a staffer. He explained to us some of the traditions of the room: no assigned seats, the rotating Speaker, the cloak rooms, etc. Next we went to the rotunda (which you can see in the picture above). On our way he explained the paintings, and the statues, including the new California statue of Ronald Reagan. As we were standing there, learning about the room, in walked a couple of Capitol policemen, a photographer and an entourage of people.


It turned out it was California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. He had come to take a picture with the new Reagan statue. The room was divided in the middle with a roped off walkway. We happened to be the only group on the Governator's side. As the groups in the room pressed up against the ropes, we got a closer look, and presumably got into many people's pictures. After that we walked to the "Center of Washington". In the middle of the room, there was a compass built into the ground. It was the original center of Washington, DC when the City was first designed. The picture below is us standing around it, and some with our feet on it.
After that it was time for lunch in the House Member's Dining Room. The next week when I handed the "CMC Washington Packet" to my supervisor with the orientation schedule she remarked that she had only eaten there once or twice in her ten years, so this was quite the experience. On our way there we saw Dennis Kucinich hurry past us and as we were waiting to be seated, out walked Secretary of Veteran Affairs Eric Shinseki. Unfortunately, we don't have any pictures. But we were joined by a CMC and Washington Program alum whose name escapes me at the moment. She also worked in Mr. Lewis' office and had interned there during the program. We talked about how CMC had changed since they had been there, Claremont Hall, the Kravis Center, and even the Pomona construction blocking our walk to Frary. We talked about the long-term plans for CMC renovations as well as their suggestions for the future of the program. Not only did we get great food, but it was covered by CMC (always a plus).


After lunch, they took us to Congressman Lewis' private meeting room (I think I got the name of the room right) (Picture above). It had an amazing view of The National Mall. After we were done, we went to the steps of the Capitol to take a couple of group pictures. I already posted the picture before, but I figured it's a pretty good picture, so I would post it once again.


After that we had a little break before we went back to the office for our first class with Professor Haskell, who works at Georgetown during the day. He handed out the syllabus, gave us free copies of our textbook (which he wrote), and showed off his impressive random knowledge of all of our hometowns. After class was over, we all headed home for some rest before our early 8:30 am start time the next day.

Snow Week

I've written all week about the closing of the Federal Government. The government finally opened today. Although the start was delayed, so I got a call from my boss saying that with the delayed start I should just enjoy another day off. So I ended up getting a snow week, a late winter/early spring break. With the streets a little clearer, I was able to go out to lunch and do a little shopping. It was nice to have a break, and with Monday's President's Day holiday, I will ultimately get 10 days off between work days.

Orientation Day 2

As always, you can see more pictures at the group's flickr site.

The second day of orientation, we met at 12:45 inside the Supreme Court. Myself, Jenny, Carlos, and Angela got there a little early and apparently the court was still in session and the Great Hall was closed off, so we had to go in through the side handicapped accessible entrance and didn't get to go up the steps that you see in all the movies. We were then escorted to one of the conference rooms by a member of the Supreme Court's police force. We waited there to meet with Elizabeth Papez, a law clerk for Clarence Thomas. She came with a couple of her colleagues and we talked about the types of cases that come before The Supreme Court and the thought process that goes into making the decisions.


We then got a tour of the building by the Curator of the Supreme Court. She showed us the courtroom where they argue cases. It was surprisingly small and the lawyers stand very close to the the justices. The curator gave us a rundown of what all the pictures meant and details such as where the President sits when he visits, and the seats that are designated for guests of the Justices. After that we went to the the Meeting Room for the Supreme Court. In the past it used to be used for meetings with the Justices, but recently it is just used for press conferences, photo ops, and meetings for outside groups. Our last stop was the chambers of Justice Clarence Thomas. It was cool to see go behind the scenes of the Supreme Court and see where the Justices work. We saw that his office was decorated with various college football paraphernalia. Before leaving we got a picture on those famous steps which you can see above.

I was surprised that you don't need a pass or anything to get into a Supreme Court case, instead you just have to be one of the first people in line. For the big cases some people camp out the night before, but for others you can just show up at about 8:30am (They start hearing cases at 9 am).

We then had a little break, a couple of us went to a little deli near the Capitol and Supreme Court to grab a late lunch before we headed back to the CMC office for a "Panel on professionalism and working in Washington."


Giving the presentation were Vanessa Carter and Nick Piatek who were both on the program in the Spring of 2006. Joel Malina from Wexler and Walker was also there. Although Joel didn't go to CMC, he has supervised a Washington Program participant every semester for the last 9 or so years. This semester Meredith is working there. The panel told us what to expect as an intern. We are indeed at the bottom of the totem pole. We were told good strategies for making sure we did substantive work while we were at the office. We were also told the proper way to interact with our bosses. We were also given tips on how to handle our internships along with our classes. It was good to get the perspective of both program alumni and bosses of people who have been on the program.

Orientation Day 1

I think I covered everything I can think of in terms of what you do in Claremont in preparation for the Washington Program. I'll add anything if I can think of it, but I figure I should tell people some things that they will encounter once they are in DC on the program.

Orientation is a 4 day program, and instead of trying to guess what goes on at a generic orientation (the events change slightly every year), I'll just give you a rundown of what happened at our orientation.

Although most of orientation was filled with trips to various sites around Washington, the first day was spent entirely at the CMC office. It started at 10:30 in the morning with Dr. Spalding welcoming us all. She handed out packets, we went over the schedule for the week, and got a little tour of the office (I'll have a post about the office later).

We then got Potbelly sandwiches, paid for by CMC (One of several lunches picked up by CMC during the week). Professor Haskell joined us for lunch. We went around the room and introduced ourselves for him, he displayed his impressive knowledge of our hometowns as well as his knowledge of local eateries.

Then was one of the more interesting parts of any orientation to which I have ever been. We got a "Session on safety and security in Washington, DC." We weren't really sure what to expect, we got a 6 foot 4 inch ex-marine by the name of Ken Barksdale. We learned about a CMC safe house that we were supposed to go to if the city of DC was evacuated. We learned how to react if someone grabs us, tries to use a knife, tries to use a gun, and grabs us from behind. He had us stand up in a circle, and practice the self-defense moves on him. So, we should pretty much be able to handle everything. Before he left, he gave us a CMC emergency packet, with a map to the safe house and what to do in the case of pretty much every different situation possible. He was one of the more interesting characters we encountered. As CMC Celeb Isaac Goldberg put in his recent Forum interview about his favorite unknown CMC tidbit:

"That the CMC Washington D.C. Program has an ex-Navy Seal in charge of student safety. He once told me, 'If you use the pepper spray, empty the can.'"

At the end of the security presentation, we got bright red emergency bags, which had boxed water, hand crank radio and flashlight, light stick, mask, goggles and more.

We ended the day by having our first class, Government 125 on Liberal Internationalism. We went over the syllabus and the expectations for the semester. We were each assigned a day to lead class discussion. The first presentation should be coming up next week from Carlos and Isaac.

Snowmageddon

As always you can go to the group's Flickr page to see even more pictures. Ben H. was kind enough to let me post some of his pictures on the site (including the one above).

You have probably seen on the news that snow has been hitting the DC area pretty badly, in a blizzard (blizzards?) called snowmageddon. The federal government closed early on Friday, and has been closed completely the last three days, and will be again today (Thursday). If you're curious, you can always check on the status of the federal government here.

On Super Bowl Sunday (before the second wave of snow), I was going to the CMC office to do some work, and decided to go to the National Mall to take some pictures.
The scene was beautiful with people playing on the mall, building snowmen, and even some people literally sledding down Capitol Hill.

The Super Bowl

As always, you can go to the group's Flickr page to see more photos.

Six of us gathered to watch the Super Bowl yesterday. With all the snow the Metro's service was cut way down so Mike, Jake, and Ben H. couldn't make the trek over. Luckily, with Meredith and Bukola's apartment so close, they were able to walk. We had a pretty good spread of food, with veggies, chips/pretzels, hummus, stuffed jalapenos, brats and hot dogs, and Carlos even made some homemade Guacamole. Although some people were more interested in the game than others, it was a good time for everyone. It turned out even better when we learned that the federal government would be closed today so (almost) everyone didn't have to worry about getting to work the next day.

Snow Day

Today the Federal Government is officially CLOSED. Today class was canceled. Today there is no bus service. Today the Metro is running slow. Today the streets are clogged with snow. Today is a SNOW DAY. As a native Chicagoan, I have had some snow days in my life (funny enough never while Secretary Duncan was the CEO of the Chicago Public Schools,) but never have I seen a city buckle with 24 inches of SNOW. When you come to Washington this website will become your best friend, OPM, this is the Office of Personnel Management, the federal agency that among other things declares the operating status of the federal government.

And although I would normally enjoy the snow day off, the responsibilities at the office pile up. All of today's meetings have been rescheduled for tomorrow. All of today's to do list gets added to tomorrow's list. But, I will stop thinking about the long to do list and enjoy the cable TV, going out for lunch, and perhaps taking a nap.

For our classmates in Claremont, our class tonight has been canceled (but has been rescheduled.) Georgetown, American, and George Washington University are all closed today. The public libraries and public schools are closed. The DC Government is open, whats with that?

Snowy Weekends

To see more pictures, simply go to the Flickr stream for this semester's group which is on the right side of the page, or click here.

In addition to this weekend's snow, it snowed last weekend as well. With nobody else willing to brave the cold, Ben, Carlos, and I decided to go on a tour of the monuments.

Beforehand Carlos cooked us a nice dinner.


With all the snow there was pretty much nobody else there. It was cool to be able to see all the monuments so deserted. Here are a couple pictures, go to the semester's flickr stream for more.

The Motorcade

On Thursday, I was on my way to class walking from the Farragut West stop. I noticed that there were a lot of cops around, trying to direct traffic. I couldn't figure out what was going on, but I realized they were trying to block off a couple of streets. I went up to the CMC office and noticed at that point that the streets were completely empty except for DC police cars. Jake and I were the only ones in the office, as it was still a good half hour until class. We couldn't figure out what was going on and then as we were looking out the windows, we saw the Presidential motorcade pass by the office. There must have been about 16-17 cars pass by including the Presidential Limo.

As I wrote in the earlier blog post, it really is like Disneyland.

Finding Housing

Besides the internship, the other major thing to find is housing. Here is the official description from the Washington Program about the housing situation. Professor Pitney also has a webpage on housing. On it he posts some great links to websites that will help you find housing. It's a great resource, and I wish I had been aware of it when I was looking for housing. This semester, Mike is staying at housing provided by the Heritage Foundation. To stay there, they make sure that you agree with their political opinions. Here's another website that I used to help find housing. It provides links to furnished housing.

Whether or not you decide to choose furnished housing is another issue that you have to face. "Furnished" can mean a lot of different things. This is something that they will address at on-campus orientation. It could mean anything from providing a table and chairs to our situation which had pretty much everything we needed from sheets for the beds to paper towels and dish soap. The other option is to get an unfurnished apartment in which case you would have to rent furniture. Nobody on this semester's program decided to go that route, and it would be significantly more difficult because you would have to worry about getting it all moved in.

Another consideration is location. This semester everybody but Ben is staying within the actual District. You can usually find cheaper housing in Virginia, but it is a little further from the CMC classroom and the Capitol/White House if you're thinking about working there. However, for people who are working at the Pentagon (Like Ben) it is more convenient.

You also have to consider how close your housing is to the metro in terms for getting to work. As Dr. Spalding articulated, you generally don't want to have to catch a bus to get to a subway station. When you're rushing in the morning that can be a little bit of a hassle. Our apartment is about 4-5 minutes from one subway station, and about 7-8 minutes from another one which has the line which goes to the Capitol. You should make sure your apartment is close to a metro station, and with the wonders of Google Maps, it is pretty easy to do that. You should also see how easy it is to get to the CMC office. In addition to classes, the CMC office is a nice place to go to when you need to do work for your research paper, do reading or work on any other applications you may have for the summer. The closest Metro stops for the office are Farragut West or Farragut North. The CMC office address is:

1101 17th Street NW
Suite 604
Washington, DC
20036

I'll put up a post about our apartment with some pictures in the future, and I'll try and convince the people living at other apartments to post something as well.

Anytime Mr. Secretary

With the "imminent snow storm" coming several people were absent from the office, there also seems to be some type of flu going around, and the intern had to step in for some staffers. I filled in for the receptionist responsible for all of Secretary Duncan's appointments, his conference room, and the general Department of Education phone number. I have never been so nervous answering a phone, with the possibility that they could ask for anything! During the day Secretary Duncan passed by, offering is thanks for filling in. As the Secretary of Education he has many visitors throughout the day. It's difficult to reform our nation's education system, and he needs the support of governors, school districts, and education departments across the country. Yesterday included visits from Governor Bob Riley of Alabama, and Governor Ted Strickland of Ohio (and of course all of their security details and staff.) So far, this has been the most exciting day at the office, not everyone gets to chat with two governors in one day!

Snow Day!

I thought snow days was something I wouldn't get to experience after I finished high school. But today, with the District expecting somewhere around 24 inches of snow, the federal government shut down four hours early. After work, I came home and went to Whole Foods with Jenny and Carlos. It was jam packed.

Dr. Spalding had warned us that DC isn't the greatest at handling snow and recommended that we stock up on milk, toilet paper, and bread should the snow come. Being from Chicago, I'm used to a city that is good at handling snow. They keep the roads pretty clear and there's never a rush to the grocery store. With word that snow was coming our way, I heard some of the people in my office talking about trying to go to the grocery store. On my way to lunch, I heard one guy describe the grocery store as looking like "Soviet Russia" with long lines and bare shelves. I didn't quite believe it until I went to the store today.

When I got to Whole Foods, it seemed a little crowded, but not too bad, but as we continued shopping it was brutal. It really was empty shelves and the lines for the checkout wrapped around the back of the store. It was hard to move in the store, even harder when trying to maneuver a shopping cart at the same time. I wished I had brought my camera, because I had never experienced anything like that. It took about 15-20 minutes to get through the checkout line, and when we left, we realized they were even out of shopping carts.

"It's Like Disneyland"

A couple days ago, one of the other interns put the Washington experience a good way, saying "It's like Disneyland." For political junkies, we get to see people everyday that we are only used to seeing on TV. Today I got to go to a press conference for my congresswoman. There, I got to see John Kerry and Barbara Boxer. After that we went to a meeting with Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor. At one point the congressmen/women had to go vote, leaving the Justice in the room with just a couple of staffers. After some prodding from our communications director, I was able to ask her for a photo and talk to her for a little bit. I'll try and post the photo and some more about today in a later post.

Over the last two weeks, I've also been able to see Elizabeth Kucinich (the wife of Dennis Kucinich) along with Steny Hoyer, John Conyers, Secretary of Defense Gates, Admiral Mullen, and many more who I can't think of right now. During orientation, we saw Dennis Kucinich, Secretary of Veteran Affairs Shinseki, and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Earlier this week, there wasn't much going on in the morning, so I was allowed to go to a hearing of the Senate Budget Committee. It didn't sound all that exciting, but I then realized the only witness was going to be OMB Director Peter Orzag, who Jon Stewart highlighted on The Daily Show. He was going to be presenting the President's budget proposals for FY 2011. I wasn't expecting too much. It ultimately ended up very interesting with Senator Judd Gregg yelling at Orzag, and then Senator Bernie Sanders firing back at Gregg to defend Orzag. Later, during Sanders' time he went after Gregg for helping to increase the deficit despite claiming that he is a deficit hawk. They then had a back and forth, which apparently they're not supposed to have. I realize it doesn't sound that interesting, but it was good enough for Sanders to feature on his youtube channel. You can also watch it on the Senate's official website, it starts at about 52 minutes and then Sanders going after Gregg is at about 80 minutes.

Finding an Internship Part 2

After letting the last blog post sit for a day, I realized I missed some important components of the internship search process.

First off, the career center is always available to look at your resume and give you tips about a cover letter. For the DC Program, you're supposed to include information about the program as well as contact information for Dr. Spalding.

The off-campus study office also has you submit the cover letters you sent to the potential internships, along with a resume. This helps you keep on the right schedule for finding an internship and makes sure that you are sending out enough applications. This is really helpful if you need deadlines in order to make sure you get things done.

One internship location that I should have mentioned is Wexler and Walker, where Meredith is interning this semester. This consulting firm has hosted a Washington Program student every semester for quite some time (I've heard 9 years?). So, they are an option that is known for providing substantive work for students and work well with the program. They are aware of the schedule and the demands of CMC students, so would be an easy transition to move into.

Dr. Spalding and the Washington program likes to make sure that all people are doing substantive work rather than just running to get coffee and grabbing people's lunches. They usually have pretty good direction on how to make sure that you can get this. They can tell you what places have good reputations and bad.

Also, at on-campus orientation you will receive this which tells you what NOT to do.

Finding an Internship

After the on-campus orientation, it's time to start looking for an internship. One of the parts of the conditions you agree to by going on the program is to sit down and have a meeting with Professor Pitney. There are a bunch of great resources available on campus, but one that always comes up is Professor Pitney's website. On there he has listed what seems like a couple hundred different places to find internships. He's even organized them for you. He has broken it up into different sections, including liberal/conservative. If you aren't able to find something from the long list of internships he has provided, Professor Pitney also adds all the participants to his listserv of internships. Everyday, he sends out listings and offers that have come his way. Professor Pitney has also done a great job of keeping up with alumni of CMC and alumni of the Washington Program. He will be able to point you to alumni working in various areas in Washington.

In addition, you can also find alumni connections via the career center's page. Also, pretty much ever Representative and Senator has an internship program (There aren't any that I know that don't). They are usually unpaid (I think I saw one that was paid for this semester). In addition, you can also work on some of the committee staffs. This semester, Mike Whatley is working on the minority side of the House Oversight committee. I'm working for my Congresswoman, Jan Schakowsky. It's cool to be able to work for my congresswoman, where the issues are relating to my hometown and have some knowledge of the district.

As I said, the congressional internships are mostly unpaid. However, in the private sector, it is more than possible to find a paid internship. While you won't be getting millions, the stipend will help cover the costs of living in a more expensive city than Claremont. For instance, as I said in an earlier post, Isaac has been able to get paid, get a free gym membership and get free lunches all semester. Also, with the recent Supreme Court ruling, things are looking up for lobbyists!

Whatever your interest may be, you should be able to find an internship that suits you.