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This summer I was fortunate to attend the St. Albans School
of Public Service in Washington, DC. I can honestly say that
this was one of the best summers of my life. I would be hard
pressed to find any program that could have offered me a
comparable experience.
The School of Public Service is a government/politics program
offered at St. Albans, an all boys school affiliated with the
Washington National Cathedral: It sits right next to the
cathedral in Washington, DC and is walking distance from
Georgetown. The program lasted 4 weeks. Each week we had a
different focus - Origins of governance, the president, the
congress, and the Judiciary; Media, Interest Groups and
Agencies; International and finally electives, They
successfully helped me to get a little bit more "inside the
beltway", a saying in Washington DC about being knowledgeable
of the government and its interlocking networks.
We did so much and met with so many interesting people. For
example, we met with Justice Sandra Day O'Connor for a
question and answer session after that historical week of
decisions for the Supreme Court. She was feisty and a
character that 1 will not forget. On another day, we spent the
whole day on the Hill where I met with Congressman Harold Ford
Jr., Senator Bill Frist, Senator Lamar Alexander, and others.
I felt lucky that was in a program with so many connections to
our government. For instance, when we went to the Hill we went
in front of another larger group even though we arrived after
them. Another great event was meeting with the Truman Scholars
twice.
The first time we met them, we biked together to Mt. Vernon.
This scenic ride was nice exercise and I was able to talk to a
Truman scholar named Bryan a long time. We discussed where we
were from and Politics, local to international.. These
service-minded individuals were fascinating.
About halfway through the program, I remarked to others that
there was not a single slow or boring day; it seemed like
every day was better than the previous one. The teachers were
fascinating and highly knowledgeable. .In class, the teachers
used the case study method. This is different from what l have
experienced in high school. We used real life situations to
analyze, critique, and to come up with ideas of our own. I
felt that this also helped us to learn from one another.
In-class discussions varied a lot, and were based on the focus
of the week that we were in and on the personal style of the
teacher who hosted the class. We discussed things as recent as
terrorism and health care, as well as things as "ancient" as
George Washington and the founders of our country-but it was
all well connected to our lives in the world of today
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