Life’s as Sweet as a Georgetown Cupcake

***Don’t worry, if you could care less about cupcakes, you can scroll down to read about our mentorship program, parents’ weekend, and my encounter with Donald Rumsfeld!

Ok, so you know by now my roommates and I love Georgetown Cupcake.  We try to make it there once a weekend (for the free cupcake, of course…although we usually end up buying more) and love to try the different flavors.  I was not going to write about Georgetown Cupcake in this blog, but yesterday changed my plan.

My friend from William and Mary, Caroline Kotila, came to visit me this weekend.  Both of us love to shop so it was a no-brainer to spend the day in Georgetown.

Caroline loves the TLC show, D.C. Cupcakes, which follows the experiences of the two owners of Georgetown Cupcake.  She had never been to Georgetown Cupcake, so we decided to wait in the long line that stretches up the block to try some cupcakes.  The newest season of the show premiered the night before so the owners were there signing cupcakes and taking pictures with fans.  Caroline and I couldn’t help ourselves; we decided to get pictures and autographs.

The verdict: Caroline loved the cupcakes! And I tried a new flavor, Chocolate Salted Caramel…Delicious!  Okay, so that’s the end of my writing about Georgetown Cupcake.  We were just really excited to have gotten a picture with the owners.

Now for what you really want to hear about:  the William and Mary in Washington program.  The last few weeks have been extremely busy so I apologize for not writing sooner.

Mentorship Dinner

Two weeks ago, we had a wonderful opportunity: meeting our mentors over dinner. During our orientation, we filled out questionnaires and were subsequently matched with a William and Mary alum in a career field in which we are interested.  The alums become our mentors.  We had dinner with them to become acquainted with one another, ask questions and receive advice from these proud William and Mary alumni.

Throughout the semester, we will keep in touch with them by meeting to further discuss their professions and advice for navigating the career field.  My mentor is so sweet and has already provided me with wonderful information, advice and stories from her experiences at William and Mary, internships and achieving her career aspirations to become a news producer!

Parents’ Weekend

Last weekend was not a typical weekend for us William and Mary in Washington students.  Instead of going to a basketball game, catching up on sleep, doing homework or going out, we played host to our families.  The William and Mary in Washington office did a wonderful job of keeping us all very busy with fantastic activities and opportunities. 

Our weekend started off with our families attending our Friday class.  We had a wonderful panel of speakers including Politico’s Ken Vogel, Jeremy Holden of Media Matters, the Washington Post’s Glenn Kessler and Nadia Bilbassy-Charters of MBC/Al-Arabiya. They spoke about the changes that have occurred in the news industry and their experiences covering news.  Vogel spoke about his time in Alaska covering Sarah Palin and Bilbassy-Charters recounted her experiences reporting in Africa and Saudi Arabia.  It was a great afternoon followed by a reception for our families to meet everyone in the D.C. office as well as a special guest, President Reveley.

President Reveley was in town to speak at the premiere of The Way, a film by Emilio Estevez, starring Martin Sheen.  William and Mary made this premiere possible and Georgetown University hosted the screening.  Many families went and raved about the experience (some even took pictures with Martin Sheen!).

The next day we toured the White House! I think we unanimously decided we would all love to live there. It was absolutely beautiful and amazing to see everything from a different perspective.  We were able to walk through the hallway to the East Room where the President will sometimes give an address (we are used to seeing it on television!).

After the White House, we had a break before our late lunch at Clyde’s in Chinatown (it was delicious). My family and I decided to travel to Georgetown, my favorite part of Washington, D.C.  Other families decided to walk around or visit museums.

Sunday morning we traveled to the National Gallery.  The mother of a William and Mary student is a docent and was kind enough to give us a tour.  She even included paintings that have a connection to William and Mary in the tour.  The first stop on our tour was a collection of portraits from some of America’s first presidents (they were William and Mary alumni!). My favorite pieces, however, were part of the exhibition entitled From Impressionism to Modernism: The Chester Dale Collection. They were absolutely stunning and Florian Dantreuille, our fellow William and Mary in Washington student, who is studying abroad in the U.S. from France, provided us with the correct pronunciations of the French titles of the pieces. Thanks, Florian!

After the tour, we had a delicious Italian lunch in a private room in the National Gallery.  It was a great end to the weekend and our families were impressed with our knowledge of the metro system and our ability to navigate the city.

Internships

It has been over a month since we started our internships (time flies!) and we have had wonderful opportunities!  Some of us even had the opportunity to be published!

Interns Published:

Cristina Marcos: http://thehill.com/special-reports/neighborhood-series-capitol-hill-february-2011/142855-great-lunch-finds-on-the-hill

http://thehill.com/homenews/news/146065-frustrated-mayors-hope-emanuel-will-have-obamas-ear-

http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/139977-date-night-at-the-capitol

John Kendrick: http://blog.heritage.org/2011/02/17/federal-government-could-reduce-debt-by-1-5-trillion-with-a-sale-of-unneeded-assets/

Lauren Stephenson: http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/02/09/6019290-rummy-but-not-rahm-

Pete Tosiello: http://thelastword.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/02/14/6054800-obama-unveils-massive-budget-plan

http://thelastword.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/02/21/6101007-protester-solidarity-through-pizza

Meeting former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld

Interning for NBC has been an incredible experience.  Being in the Washington bureau while history is being made in the Middle East as well as in this country has afforded me the opportunity to contribute to the production of the news.  I have learned a great deal about producing the news and have had the opportunity to contribute research to the show I work on, breaking news and to my boss’ stories for Nightly News. Recently, the show I intern for had Donald Rumsfeld on to discuss his book.

Sitting in the control room, as I do everyday during the show, was an incredible experience. I witnessed history.  I kept turning to the desk assistant next to me and we both wanted to pinch ourselves to make sure we were actually there. Secretary Rumsfeld discussed his role in the Bush administration and his never-before publicly-discussed details of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Afterwards, I had the opportunity to meet him and walk him out of the building.  Whether you agree with his policies or not, one cannot deny he is personable.  He was extremely gracious and we had a nice discussion about his book tour and his high school days (we graduated from the same high school).  It was unlike anything I have ever experienced before.  This man will no-doubt be written about in history textbooks for years to come and I was lucky enough to meet and speak with him.

The last few weeks have been extremely exciting for each of us in the program!  We will have spring break just like our fellow William and Mary students back on campus.  It will be great to catch up on some sleep, but I know we will each miss going to our internships and will surely be looking forward to returning for some more wonderful learning experiences.