Experiencing National Hispanic Conferences

Attending conferences hosted
by HACU and Excelencia in Education

One awesome aspect about getting placed in an internship that best matches your career interests is the effortless opportunity to further engage in that field. My interests are in Latino students in higher education and placement at the Hispanic-Serving Institutions Division at the U.S. Department of Education was not only incredible but very critical to engaging in this particular advocacy field. My division is engaged with other nonprofits in this field and I was able to learn about and go to national conferences by these organizations. I learned incredibly from HACU, Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities, and Excelencia in Education conferences. It was here that I was able to speak with either researchers or institutional staffers and hear about their role and efforts to improve Latino higher education attainment. I also expanded my network incredibly with individuals across the country in various industries but all are concerned with improving Latino youth's upward mobility. 

Volunteering for
 National Hispanic Leadership Institute 

To future WAIP fellows, especially the ones who will be in the spring, I highly encourage you to volunteer at these large, national gatherings. I extended my stay in DC through the weekend so that I could volunteer at NHLI's, National Hispanic Leadership Institute, annual conference. While I couldn't get registered through work this was a great substitute to be engage and interact with nonprofit organizations that I admired. Sometimes it's hard to meet with members of an organization and volunteering for their events is a great initial way to start a relationship with the staff. Plus, I met a lot of amazing young Latina students who are also interested in policy and advocating on behalf of the Hispanic community. It's these types of connections and networks you can't replace. I strongly hope that the Spring 2013 fellows make a list of at least three organizations or advocacy groups they admire, find out if they are having large scale events, and ask to volunteer!

Amber Seira  |  @amber_seira

Falling in Love

Dear Future Fellows,

When you move to D.C. for this fellowship, they will try to prepare you the best they can for everything you might encounter.  They will warn you about longer commute times, safety issues, and general living-in-a-city problems, but they can't cover it all.  Some things will come up that you aren't prepared for, but you just cope the best you can.  One of the things they won't warn you about is falling in love.  

Somewhere between my daily commute, answering office phones, giving tours, meeting new people, weekly outings to Eastern Market, afternoons on the Mall, strolling through museums and monuments, I fell in love with Washington, D.C.  It is a city like no other, and provides so many great opportunities.  Every single day I lived here with the WAIP program I woke up, looked out the window at the Capitol building and felt blessed.  I had the chance to go to work every day in one of the most gorgeous buildings, have the nicest coworkers, and chat with the Justices.  After meeting incredible people after incredible people every single day at work, I got to come home to the other Fellows in the program and forge friendships with them.  I won't forget a single one of them and look forward to seeing them again in Columbus, as well as finding out about the amazing things each will be doing with their life.  

These past fifteen weeks, my life has been changed.  I have a clearer view of what I want to do, where I want to be, and who I want to be.  There will still be decisions to make and hurdles to jump, but because of D.C., I know where I'm going and have the resources to get there. Each and every person I've met this semester has helped shape this and I am grateful to every one of them.  

As I write this, I'm finishing packing, and I'd lie if I said that it wasn't a tearful occasion.  Saying goodbye is always the worst--both to my friends and this city. But, I know, like many of the other fellows, I will be back.  And when I do, I hope to see the rest of you doing great things, like I know you will.

To my current fellows--I couldn't have asked for a better group of people to spend the semester with.  You were all fantastic and interesting, and I loved all of our differences. WAIP reunions will be much anticipated. 

So, future fellows, when you get to D.C., don't be afraid to explore, to dream, and to fall in love.  

Love, 

Katie

Just an Average Day on Capitol Hill

Two weeks ago, I had the good fortune of attending two fantastic events on the same day! The first was the Wounded Warrior event at the Supreme Court.  The Wounded Warrior Project is a great group that helps injured veterans get the care that they need, as well as raise awareness for veterans’ needs.  I had heard of the WWP because of their various fundraisers, but I had never had the chance to actually see one of their programs for veterans until that day.  Around 15 veterans arrived in the morning and were treated to tours and lectures for them and their families, all capping off with a reception held in their honor.  Several of the Justices were in attendance and spent a lot of time meeting with veterans and talking about their experiences.  One family I became particularly fond of consisted of a veteran, his wife, and their two young daughters.  All were excited to meet and talk with the Justices, but the eldest girl was so excited to meet the female Justices.  She learned that she shared literary interests with a few of the female Justices and was encouraged in her studies.  The youngest daughter liked meeting the Justices, but was a little wary of the Chief Justice because “he’s the boss.” Once she gained the courage to actually meet him, they became fast friends and shared a picture together.  This event was incredible to me because I got to meet a great group of heroes, as well as meet more of the Justices I hadn’t previous met, and see the interactions between the two.  Events like these make me even more thankful for those who serve our country, as well as for my internship because it has afforded me incredibly opportunities like this one. 

The second event I attended (late, I might add—sorry!) was the lunch with Senator Glenn and his wife, Annie.  Both were articulate and funny, sharing stories of the Senator’s time in Congress and Space, as well as Mrs. Glenn superior skill on the flight simulator.  The Senator gave us Fellows tips on working in government and we were able to get all of our burning questions answered. 

I can say that I have never met so many interesting people in one day, and I’m sure that record won’t be broken anytime soon.  Between the Senator, the Justices, and the veterans, I spent the day in awe of their great accomplishments, as well as down-to-earth natures.  I can only hope that one day I will be able to inspire others, as they have inspired me. 

-Katie

Opportunity in Internship: Meeting the Secretary of Education!

Imagine after a long day researching in your fabulous gray cubicle, you hear the phone ring while you are excitedly packing up your things. Most people would probably let the call go to voicemail but since I'm the intern and nobody ever calls me, I curiously answered the phone. In that conversation with the front office, I found myself agreeing to be a speaker for an upcoming event where I will not only give a short speech but introduce the Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan. Meeting Arne and sharing my higher education story was hands down the most exciting and fulfilling event of my internship at the U.S. Department of Education (ED).

I love my experience with the intern program at ED this past semester. They had three staff members dedicated to our career development and government engagement. I learned so much about the federal government and the agency through office hours, intern outings, and weekly brown bag lunches. Even though my division is located not at headquarters but on K street, I still made sure to attend as many events as possible.

Sometimes structured activities can only provide so much and oftentimes I followed through with brown bag speakers, who best match my career aspirations, for informational interviews. This was where I found out about all of the rich fellowships and programs I could consider as post-graduation plans. This was very crucial insight to know of various feasible, best-matching options to return to DC.

Other times I had to be very assertive to engage and learn about ED. My personal experiences with federally funded educational programs directed my inquisitiveness to get to know the Office of Postsecondary Education (OPE) better. It is from this and other engagements I made to connect with several staff memebers that eventually led me to the incredible opportunity to speak in front of OPE and to introduce Arne.

Former WAIP fellows highly encouraged me to take advantage of all the resources and people available during my time in Washington and I'm so glad to have followed their advice. Future WAIP fellows should try extra hard to network and follow their curiosities. It provided me with such clear ideas of paths to pursue and removed some stress when seeking that next endeavor after graduation.

- Amber Seira | @amber_seira

The Mentor Program

One of the most rewarding aspects of my semester in Washington, D.C. has been the mentoring program.  The Washington Academic Internship Program sets up each Glenn Fellow with an Ohio State graduate who now works in D.C.

My mentor Kirstin works for FedEx and handles sales involving the Department of Defense.  She has worked for FedEx for years, and her ambition has paid off.  Kirstin works hard and travels often, and she loves her job.  Many of our lunches have ended with Kirstin letting me know she'd be in Dubai the following week...

-Maddie.

For the rest of this post and pictures of Maddie trying to dissect steamed crabs, continue to http://maddiefireman.typepad.com/maddie/2012/11/mentoring.html

Food=אוכל=Comida=DC

Big cities are expensive and before I came to Washington, D.C. I knew I would be "eating in" as much as possible.

My roommates and I get along really well.  I knew we would be peas in a pod when my most important roommate criterion was met: combining finances when it comes to food.  We love to cook, and we cook almost every night.

Our parameters and/or roadblocks:

A is a vegan.

L won't eat beets, cherries, or goat cheese.

Thanks to malaria pills I took during world travels in 2008 and 2009 I can't eat acidic foods like tomatoes, and eggplants trigger my migraines.  A and L love spicy foods, and I have a more sensitive palate.  

Our roadblocks:

Our "fully furnished" apartment contained no measuring spoons or cups and no sharp knives.  Some other pepole in our apartment building had no serrated knives, and others had no cutting boards while we had around five.  We've done some trading and sharing.

Our "fully furnished" apartment is also without a dishwasher.  This is a huge problem for us.  I often think of my grandfather, Papa Bee, when I cook.  He loved to cook and was very creative, but he hated to do the dishes and he often left my grandma's kitchen a mess.  The food was worth it.  Still, none of us like to clean our own dishes.  Our new fix: we've made friends with our next-door neighbors and we now use their dishwasher.

We live in a bit of a food desert.  There's a supermarket around the corner from our apartment where we can get produce at affordable prices, but things like chips, milk, and cereal are marked way up.  Apparently there is a Safeway supermarket near us.  I helped another intern in our building carry her groceries into the elevator, and asked her where she went for our food.  She told me there was a Safeway grocery store nearby in Southeast Washington.  "But," she told me, "It's in a bad neighborhood.  A really bad neighborhood.  I'm not kidding.  When you leave Safeway, run, don't walk."

I knew that wasn't going to work for us.

Still, we've made it work.

Where does our food come from?

Safeway delivery orders, Giant delivery orders, lugging grocieries from the Van Ness Giant, fresh produce from the Eastern Market, and the occasional haul from Trader Joe's near Foggy Bottom.

Now to the fun stuff.  What have we cooked?

One of our first meals.

...

-Maddie.

Read the full post at http://maddiefireman.typepad.com/maddie/2012/10/foodochelcomidadc.html

Grownups

Washington is a grown-up place.  We dress up, go to work every day, cook dinner every night...real life is hard, but we're adjusting.  Some of my favorite aspects of grown-up life:

Being unable to sleep in.

Maybe it's because I'm getting older and I'm ready to seize the day.  Or maybe it's because my bed is directly under a window.

Voting absentee.

I've voted in the local elections since I turned 18, but I've been out of Ohio for the last two presidential elections.  In 2008 I was in Israel and my voting experience was...

To view the entire post, continue to http://maddiefireman.typepad.com/maddie/2012/11/grownups.html

-Maddie.

The National Geographic Museum

To celebrate Katie's completion of the LSAT on Saturday, Katie, Erin, Isaac, and I went to explore the National Geographic Museum on 17th and M Street. The National Geographic Museum is located one block from my office in Farragut Square, but I have never found the chance to check it out until now!

A $6 student admission ticket brought us first to a short film and an exhibit titled "1001 Inventions." This exhibit highlights a plethora of theories and inventions found in Muslim and Arabic areas of the world during the Dark Ages. Highlights of the exhibit included a flying game where you actually flapped your arms to fly through an obstacle course, a constellation matching game, building blocks, and tons of other interactive and informative displays on Muslim innovation. While the exhibit was clearly aimed at a younger audience, my group surprisingly had a lot of fun looking at the displays and fighting off small children for another turn at the flying game.

The second component of the museum was an exhibit on exotic birds of the world, focusing particularly in South America and New Guinea. Despite my paralyzing fear of being attacked by birds, I enjoyed seeing all of the unique (and stuffed) species stowed safely away behind glass cases. One of the most captivating components of the exhibit was a film on how National Geographic films these exotic species. The two men featured in the video discussed the months long process to just get one decent picture of a rare species. A beautiful bird photography display at the front of the exhibit was also worth spending time exploring.

Finally, if you are looking for a great gift shop the National Geographic Museum has one of the best I have ever seen.  My group spent easily as much time looking through all of the books, gifts, videos, and photography in the gift shop as we did looking at the exhibits!

Overall, if you are looking for an interesting way to spend an hour or two (especially if you are with younger children) I would definitely recommend visiting the National Geographic Museum.

-Marissa Cooper