Late summer 2012, I went to Washington, D.C. for an Internship with the U.S. Department of Education (Post Secondary Education). I stayed in Amsterdam Hall at George Washington University, a ten minute walk from work and from the Mall.
8 July - Move in
9 July - Q&A with the Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, and the Department of Education Interns (about 50 of us). I was thrilled to listen to him speak. I thought the most memorable thing he said was, "Education is too far down on the priority list." Another interesting story was that once, President Obama met with the head of South Korea who said his biggest problem in education is that South Korean parents are too demanding. The government has to spend millions of extra dollars to do things like start English in first grade because the parents will not wait until second. What does this mean about the priority of education in America? Shouldn't it be much, much higher?
10 July - Incredible meeting about the President's Interfaith College Challenge to colleges and universities across the country at Howard University. Paul Quinn College has an especially memorable story about turning their football field into an organic food field to help fight hunger in the community. Then out to tourist after work!
12 July - Self Guided walking tour of George Washington University to at least try to get to know where I'm staying for the summer. There are some really beautiful parts of this campus, but I think it is too urban for me to want to live there year-round. I love my Emory Eagles and our big quad and the fact that when you are on campus, you are on campus, not in the middle of a city.
GWU quad:
The Yard, which the students call a quad:
13 July - For the past few days for work, I've been researching Khan Academy and going through his algebra lessons. I did algebra I in 8th grade and algebra II in 10th grade, and I do not need any more help with those topics, but Khan and various features of the Khan Academy make me WANT to watch the videos and do the exercises and do well to earn badges and get "energy points" to unlock various avatars. I feel the same about other topics he covers, including ones with which I do not have experience. I would recommend Khan Academy to students of all ages. This is not a replacement for a class, but it is an incredible supplement.
- Brown bag lunch with the Education Department's White House liaisons, Sam Myers and Margaret Olmos. What was interesting - and rather excessive - were their mini lectures on always pushing ahead with your plans in life and making sure every step guides you in the right direction. They suggested we college students make the big pushes now so that later in life we can relax into good jobs about which we are passionate.
- Walking tour of Georgetown (I did the second one). Friday the 13th reared its ugly head - when I was the absolute farthest from my dorm as I could get - and the handle on my purse broke three times, and one of my shoes broke to the point where I couldn't use it to walk without tying it to my foot. But Georgetown was nice! And Georgetown University was beautiful:
14 July - Tour of the Capitol
King Kamehameha of Hawaii and a rotunda that portrays the start of America (Columbus landing) up to the Wright Brothers.
Pocahontas getting baptized. Apparently she married a guy named John but not John Smith, the one she saved, just like in the Disney movie.
Me in front of the Library of Congress:
Library of Congress and the Capitol:
Buzz Lightyear in space, explanation of Pluto not being a planet anymore:
I still think Pluto is a planet, but I guess I buy it.
15 July - Happy Birthday to me!
DC tip: The Holocaust Museum is free (like most other museums in DC) but requires you to get tickets beforehand for a specific time during the day. I'd recommend going early in your touristing time to get your ticket then visiting a few other museums while you wait for your entrance time.
Not a very celebratory start at the American Holocaust Museum (not allowed to take pictures inside).
Then the Museum of Natural History.
Ancient penguin skeleton:
I know what I want for my birthday! And a picture award-winner.
Greensboro demonstration:
Dorothy's ruby red slippers:
Quick visit to "The Castle" - the Smithsonian information center:
16 July - Brown Bag lunch with Ruthanne Buck and Will Ragland from the Department of Education's Office of Legislation and Congressional Affairs. I was also featured in the "Casual Corner" of the Office of Post Secondary Education Digest:
17 July - College affordability panal with Secretary Arne Duncan, Chief of Staff Joanne Weiss, Under Secretary Martha Kanter, Deputy Under Secretary Georgia Yuan, and Acting Assistant Secretary for Postsecondary Education David Bergeron.
19 July - Farewell dinner for my fellow intern, Lucy, with our bosses Rosemarie Nassif and David Soo at Founding Farmers, a great restaurant within walking distance of work. Lucy leaves the 26th for London to watch the Olympics!
20 July - Can Professionals "Have It All"? brown bag lunch. The discussion was based on the article "Why Women Still Can't Have It All" by Anne-Marie Slaughter. I believe that women can have it all, and all at once, but it depends on having a supportive partner and the means to support children without a constant parental presence (day care, babysitters, etc.). Interesting topic.
22 July - Smithsonian's National Zoo
The panda was really going at that bamboo! And a naked mole rat like Rufus from Kim Possible.
He was just posing for us. And I even went to an octopus feeding.
24 July - Planning Ahead for Stress - Lunch and Learn Presentation with Kendall Jamison. She gave us some great tips about not being overwhelmed by stess. I think I'm going to try some visualization and meditation. She recommended the book The Stress Effect: Why Smart Leaders Make Dumb Decisions--And What To Do About It by Henry L. Thompson, Ph.D.
25 July - Arlington National Cemetery
Tomb of the Unknown Soldier:
JFK:
I happened upon the Changing of the Guard Ceremony:
26 July - Pentagon City Mall. Huge, beautiful mall with amazing Haagen Dazs ice cream!
27 July - White House "Interns Only Briefing" on LGBT Issues at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.
HUGE, beautiful building:
We were supposed to have four speakers - Ben Mizer (U.S. Department of Justice), Dr. Chloe Schwenke (U.S. Agency for International Development), AJ Pearlman (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services), and Mary Beth Maxwell (U.S. Department of Labor) - but we had a special visitor pop her head in for a quick speech: Valerie Jarrett, a senior advisor and assistant to President Obama for Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs:
That was moderated by Gautam Raghavan (LGBT Liaison, White House Office of Public Engagement). We also had a very short panel (some of the speakers were chatty) consisting of Jeremy Bernard (White House Social Secretary), Ashlee Davis (White House Office of Presidential Personnel and awesome person who won entrepreneurial competitions at 14 and became a reverend in Tennessee at 16), Dave Noble (Special Assistant to the President for Presidential Personnel), Wayne Ting (Policy Advisor, National Economic Council), and Kate Villarreal (Press Assistant for the U.S. Trade Representative). It was moderated by Katie Miller, a White House Intern:
We also got a copy of the proclamation from President Obama making June 2012 Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month.
DC tip: For college students or young professionals, oftentimes the best way to get into high-security buildings is to be an intern in DC. If you have a good boss, they'll take you (or send you) to events all over the city, sometimes even taking you in a car with a private driver.
28 July - International Spy Museum - Expensive (and I couldn't take pictures) but awesome! I am Angela Falcone, age 21, an Italian travel agent. I was born in Mirano, Italy. I'm traveling to Hanoi, Vietnam, for a business trip. I'll be there for 30 days.
DC tip: Some museums (like the International Spy Museum and the Newseum) are not free and can be rather expensive. Oftentimes though, they're more than worth the entrance fee.
National Portrait Gallery - I went for the presidential portraits and took a look around. Based on some of these paintings, I think I could be a contemporary artist...
Union Station - great shops and restaurants:
29 July - John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts tour:
One of the President's boxes:
Back to the Kennedy Center for one of their daily free shows. Youth Symphony Orchestra:
DC tip: Yes, FREE and DAILY concerts at the Kennedy Center.
An all-day event that I loved with five panels. The most important ideas I got out of it were:
1. "You have to be able to say in 30 seconds why what you're doing is totally awesome." - Michael Staton
2. "Do or do not. There is no try." - Yoda
3. We have to define what a "quality education" is. Andrew Delbanco says it is one that teaches students to become competitive in our market, to become competitive in a global market, and to enjoy life and open the senses.
4. Big inefficiencies and barriers to change in schools: unneeded hierarchy and complexity (too many layers of supervisors), fragments and redundancy (techology, servers, underutilized, inefficient), lack of standardization, misaligned incentives - Jeff Selingo
3 August - Presentation by the International and Foreign Language Education (IFLE) division of the Office of Postsecondary Education (OPE) about some of their programs. This presentation made me want to take a year to teach English abroad after I get a BA before I come back to the States to get my Ph.D.
12 August - National Botanical Garden!
13 August - Tour of the Supreme Court! Unfortunately the outside was under construction.
And back to the Kennedy Center to take a picture of a gorgeous ceiling in one of the auditoriums.
14 August - Memorials at night
17 August - White House tour!
DC tip: Booking a tour at the White House can take as long as 6 to 8 weeks. You can book it through your state representative. They can also book you other interesting tours, like for the Bureau of Engraving and Printing.
We weren't allowed to take pictures inside, but I found one online that I had seen inside of LBJ with his dog:
Then a tour of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing
18 August - Flight home! Almost got stuck in Dallas for the night, but I ended up making it back to Lubbock!
Comment below - Tell me about your favorite things in DC. I need to know what to visit next time!
The Newseum is a great place to go if you feel like you've seen a lot of DC already.
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