Where the Wild Things Are

The United States Botanical Garden is the perfect destination for forgetting about city life and getting back nature. The indoor conservatory features 13 different environments that showcase countless trees, flowers, foliage, and herbs. 

Guests enter the conservatory at the Garden Court. This room is complete with colorful fountains and ethno-botanical plants that have played a major role in human development.  From there guests can weave their way through a maze of other environments, including the jungle, Hawaii, garden primeval, and desert.  Be prepared for some pretty wild sights and scents!

The jungle environment is situated at the center of the conservatory. It’s glass dome reaches almost 100 feet high! You can view a winding stream on the forest floor or climb up to the mezzanine level to observe the canopy layer. 

I highly recommend checking out the orchid exhibit.  There are hundreds of specimens displayed at one time.  These differ between naturally occurring and hybrid species.

The Botanical Garden also features an exhibit dedicated to many critically endangered species. One such plant is the Brighamia insignis, otherwise known as “cabbage on a stick.” There is only one known plant still existing in the jungles of Hawaii.  It is native to the islands and the population has been depleted due to grazing animals, invasive species, and the loss of pollinators.     

A trip to the Botanical Garden allows you to travel all over the world while remaining right on the National Mall. You will be shocked at how strange and beautiful a bunch of plants can be!
             
-Kiera Finelli

John Glenn Learning Community visits DC by Cody Vermillion

More Buckeyes filled the District this past weekend as the John Glenn Learning Community made their annual trip to Washington. The time was well spent with friends, old and new, experiencing things that the weather has made it so challenging to partake in the past few months.

The Glenn Fellows had multiple opportunities to interact with the students from the LC and to really get to know a younger generation of Buckeyes that could someday be involved in WAIP. Dinner at the renowned Tony Cheng's in Chinatown was delicious (and free) and was our first opportunity to meet the students on the trip. The informal setting allowed us to talk about everything from internships to classes to basketball. The following evening we all participated in a speed networking event and got to hear the stories of alumni of the Glenn School who now live in DC and have perspectives to offer from the public and private sector.

For me, the highlight of the weekend was a night tour of the monuments. The tour was lead by the elegantly poised Chris Adams, who came prepared with fun facts to share as we arrived to each memorial. Despite being in DC since January, I had yet to see all of the memorials on the National Mall until Saturday night. The World War II Memorial was as breathtaking as always and possibly even more so now that the fountains are on and flowing. For the first time I visited the memorials dedicated to MLK, FDR and Thomas Jefferson, all of which brought me an overwhelming feeling of pride and happiness. The Lincoln Memorial remains my favorite which I can confidently say now that I have visited them all. Each time I ascend the marble steps into his temple, I am blown away by the beauty and elegance it has to offer and what its existence signifies as I read the statement scribed beyond his chair. I definitely recommend taking the time to see the monuments at night. I promise you will not be disappointed.

Life as a Public Policy Associate for AFSP- Bailey Denzy

For anyone interested in working in the non-profit sector, I thought that I would talk a bit about my experience as a public policy associate (their fancy term for intern) at the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP).

Now at first my job sounds like it would be a bit of a depressing undertaking. I think that many non-profits exist to fight for issues of injustice and advocate for change. That is what we do at my office and if you got the chance to hear more about this work, you would learn that what we do is actually making a difference in the lives of thousands of people. So in answer to that question, it is actually a very happy place to work and it gives us so much joy to know that we are helping those in need.  

Apart from the miscellaneous office work that any intern will encounter, I get to take part in lots of interesting assignments and events. In February, AFSP hosted their annual advocacy forum in Arlington, VA., which turned out to be my favorite event so far. 250 staff and volunteers from across all 50 states joined me in our single largest effort to inform our congressmen about the importance of ensuring access to mental health treatment for all Americans. Due to the negative stigma surrounding suicide and mental health, it is difficult to get people to talk about these issues. However, by taking our message confidently to the Hill, we are slowly changing the conversation around this topic and that’s how we know our work is making a difference. Patrick Kennedy spoke at our forum and it was great to be able to hear about a real person’s struggles with mental illness. I also got to meet and exchange contacts with so many amazing people that continued to inspire me throughout the 3-day conference.

Every non-profit will be different, but each will be rewarding in their own unique way. In summary, if you want to:

1. Meet passionate and hard-working people

2. Learn about something you’re interested in

3. Take part in the opportunity to change the world, 

then working with a non-profit is just for you! 

National Air and Space Museum - Bailey Denzy

Last Friday, the seven of us took a trip to the National Air and Space Museum, where we got a tour from an ex-air force pilot named Mark. It was great to learn about the history of aviation and space flight from such an experienced man. Throughout the tour, Mark talked about his personal inspiration for becoming a pilot and shared some interesting stories about his encounters with a few of the many famous pilots and astronauts that have visited the museum.

One of the first planes that Mark showed us, the Voyager, completed the first non-stop flight around the world. If you see it, you’ll be shocked to believe that a man and his traveling companion/girlfriend were crammed in the tiny cabin for 9 days straight! Also on display is the original 1903 Wright Flyer that Wilbur and Orville Wright constructed to complete the world’s first successful flight.

Personally, I thought the most exciting part of the trip was being able to see all of the original spacecraft used in the United States’ first trips to the moon and around the universe. When Mark learned that we were from Ohio State, he made sure to take us to see the Friendship 7 spacecraft that John Glenn traveled in to become the first American to orbit the Earth in 1962. As a current John Glenn fellow, it was cool to feel like I had a connection to this American hero. We are hoping to meet John Glenn and his wife later this spring.  

This turned out to be my favorite Smithsonian museum so far and I would definitely recommend it. Like a lot of things in DC, it’s also free! So check out the most visited museum in the country next time you’re in DC. Get there early because it does fill up quick (but don’t arrive before they open on a cold day or you’ll be stuck huddling for warmth outside the doors until they officially open!)  With over 60,000 objects in their collection (from this picture I took you can see an original space suit worn by John Glenn), you could easy spend half a day, but I would definitely recommend giving yourself a few hours to check out all the awesome history the museum has to offer. 

Spring 2014 Book List

This semester Interim Director, Dr. Kevin Scott, selected new books for the policy seminar class.

Like years past we'll be reading,

• Bardach, Eugene. 2011. A Practical Guide for Policy Analysis: The Eightfold Path to More Effective Problem Sovling, 4th Edition.  Thousand Oaks: CQ Press.
• Mann, Thomas, and Norman Ornstein. 2013. It's Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided With the New Politics of Extremism. New York: Basic Books.

The new content includes,

• Acemoglu, Daron, and James Robinson. 2012. Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty. New York: Crown Publishers.
• Coyle, Marcia. 2013. The Roberts Court: The Struggle for the Constitution. New York: Simon & Shuster.
• Irwin, Neil. 2014. The Alchemists: Three Central Bankers and a World on Fire. New York: Penguin Press. 
• Sanger, David. 2012. Confront and Conceal: Obama's Secret Wars and Surprising Use of American Power. New York: Crown Publishers. 

Rules as a Congressional Intern

Office life as a congressional Intern can be tedious if you let it be.  In my experience offices don’t tend to expect too much out of their interns and it is your job to make them reevaluate that line of thinking.  A few things to expect:
1. Be ready to answer the phones – as an intern you are expected to act as a filter to the more senior members of your member’s staff. Answering phones is something these staffers do not like to do – thus, it is for you to do.
2. Answering phones is not fun – you will be confronted with lunatics, conspiracy theorists, and generally people with no clue how government works. They will yell at you sometimes. Expect call volume and frequency to increase when something important is happening. It is perhaps the worst aspect of this gig in my opinion.
After this, the duties of an intern are subject to your coordinator and your office.
I would highly recommend the following:
1. Work hard – this would seem to go without saying, but after a few days of doing nothing but answering horrible phone calls you might find your work ethic waning. Power through this. Staffers notice who cares and who does not. Staffers also talk to one another. You don’t want to gain the reputation as the “bad intern” in their office. It will get around.
2. Make your interests known – Your intern coordinator should know what you are interested in with regards to policy. Transportation, defense, environmental, whatever it is, try to go to briefings and hearings that pertain to it (this will also get you away from the phones for a while).
3. Work hard – in my opinion people make too much out of the whole “networking” thing on the Hill. Yes, carry business cards with you. Yes, hand them out when you can. Yes, make friends in other offices. All of these are nice touches and great ways to (maybe) be remembered. A better touch and a guaranteed way to be remembered: to be invaluable to the staffers in your office. You should strive to be the name they call when they need something.
4. The BBQ station in the Longworth cafeteria – it’s really good.

-Ryan

Monuments: More Than What You Remember From 8th Grade

I'm going to preface this with the old "my family came to visit me" excuse for posting something so obvious and touristy. 

Though I'm not sure that's entirety necessary. After living in DC for some months people tend to stop noticing things like the Washington Monument, the war memorials on the National Mall, the Capitol (Hill interns, I'm talking to you on that last one). Some people might not even venture "all the way" to the Tidal Basin to see Jefferson, or the other side of the Mall to see Lincoln and the Reflecting Pool. Anyone who grew up in Ohio might just feed you the 8th grade visit story as their reasoning for not wanting to see these sights again. To anyone using or thinking of using that excuse: you don't know what you're missing.

A lot of stuff happens in life between a WAIP experience in DC and 8th grade. Between the simple measure of time (a few years at the very least) and several life events (hopefully), you should be a person more receptive to the messages these monolithic constructions can convey. In my experience I found I didn't really pay a lot of attention during my own 8th grade trip and after a few years of taking political science and public affairs classes that these great works of art were resonating a little more than I thought.

Will this be the case for you? I certainly have no idea. Is it worth a shot? I think so. Whether its walking up the steps to see Lincolns massive frame resting so majestically, or enjoying the scenery while walking the Tidal Basin on the way to see Jefferson (check out the quotations on the panels above the statue when you get there), I can guarantee that it will at least mean more than it did when you were 13.

-Ryan

Football Saturdays in Columbus (Sort of)

Though I'm sure to draw the ire of Dr. Kolson (sorry Dr. K, I had to do it), this post will be about football (sort of). As this semester here in our nation's capitol happened to be the final semester of my senior year, it also happened to be fall semester at The Ohio State University and everyone knows what that means: Football. I unfortunately missed out on the in-person version of the majority of Urban Meyer's second undefeated regular season (one home game against Wisconsin withholding), however, this does not mean I missed out on watching the perfection surrounded by my fellow Buckeyes.
For any future Buckeye who may happen to find themselves in the predicament of waking up on Saturday morning, throwing on their scarlet and grey, and turning on the TV dripping with the anticipation of witnessing their team lay waste to some unknowing foe only to find ESPN or ABC showing the Boston College/ Maryland game - fear not. There is a place you can go where you'll swear you just stepped off High St.
Rhino Bar & Pumphouse (please don't inquire as to what exactly a "pumphouse" is because I'm pretty sure this is the only one in existence) can fill your Ohio State football void. Every Saturday Rhino is packed with fellow Ohioans, tOSU grads and fans of the Buckeyes in general (so much so that I would strongly advise getting there at least a half hour prior to the kick). It is in essence the perfect place for anyone who is feeling a little homesick for Columbus - unless of course home to you doesn't include 25 cent chicken wings (in which case I have no desire to know what your rendition of home would be).
The experience is so authentic that following games Rhino is even complete with the familiar swaying sounds of Carmen Ohio. Feel free to sway as you would back in Columbus future WAIPers.
(Disclaimer: 21 and up)

-Ryan

A Lucky Spin of the Wheel

Early in the semester, I had the opportunity to go to a Washington Redskins game. Although I'm a Browns fan, I will never pass up the opportunity to go to a NFL game, especially when it's handed to me, like it was this time. One day on my lunch break at work, I happened to have stumbled pass a food truck with 2 Redskins cheerleaders standing outside. They asked me if I wanted to win tickets to a Redskins game, and of course I answered with a resounding "yes!" I knew there was a catch, however. In order to have a chance to spin the wheel to win 2 Redskins tickets, I would have to purchase $20 worth of lottery tickets. Being easily persuaded, and having not really considered my realistic shot of winning, I bought the tickets and spun the wheel. To my amazement, the wheel landed on one of the very few spots designating 2 tickets to the Redskins game that weekend! I was so shocked that I won that my hand was trembling when I had to fill out the necessary paperwork. Since I'm not a Redskins fan, I thought I should at least take someone that was, so I ended up taking my colleague Dwight who has lived in the DC area his entire life. Although the Redskins lost and the tickets were nosebleeds (last row of the upper deck), we still had a great time and it was interesting to go to a stadium other than First Energy Stadium in Cleveland. Below is the view from our seats.

-Corey

The National Zoo

I have now visited the National Zoo twice - once with my parents and the other time with my borther and his girlfriend - and I must admit that it's one of my favorite DC attractions. Not only is the zoo metro accessible, but like many other DC tourist spots, it's also free! I must warn, however, that the zoo is very spread out and there's only one exit point, so wear comfortable shoes and prepare for a nice and long uphill walk as you leave the zoo. Nonetheless, the zoo's grounds are kept up nicely and there are a number of awesome exhibits to check out. My favorite was the Africa Trail which winds around and displays animals native to the African continent. On my second visit, the animals were particularly active. The elephant, for example, was being directed to bow down and lift its back leg up - a sight that drew great attention and awe from the crowd. The apes, as always, were also fun to watch -one of the apes was using a tree branch to dig food out of a PVC pipe. The picture below is from the ape exhibit.

-Corey