DC is a smart city.

Mandatory Tourist Pic

DC is a smart city. I like to sit and wonder about the person I'm sitting next to on the subway, what piece of policy they might be working on or what piece of legislation might be running through their minds for review. Unlike the piles of newspapers that I witness neglected (typically) on the college campus, here print newspapers have no appearance of going extinct any time soon. In fact, to keep up with the news, I don’t even have to buy a newspaper; I can just read the stories off the backs of the ones the people are reading all around me on the subway home! And if I'm looking for a book recommendation, really the only thing I would have to do would be to take a glance around at the covers of the ones people are constantly opening up beside me. I feel surrounded by the smartest people in our nation. And they all seem to be attending to our nation; this city in which business casual reigns and smart phones truly are the palm pilots of everyday survival. Most of all, I love being surrounded by ongoing conversations around me that are every time more and more difficult not to eavesdrop on. 

Being here in DC with PLEN has already provided me with what I came here for: to gain exposure in the atmosphere in which international policy is conducted, and specifically how that might relate to science, Latin America, and/or education. (I seem to have an endless supply of interests at the moment.)  I came to the conference with the concession that this was an area in which I knew very little about, being a recent graduate with a degree in biology yet from having bona fide experience living abroad in Latin America and working throughout college with cultural concerns in Hispanic education in the state of Texas, felt that this seminar was definitely a place I could find out where to go next. It also says something when every speaker bio and site visit description is just straight eye candy! In just the two days that I’ve been here, I feel like I am on the way to generating a “360 degree” view of what leading a life in Washington, involved in policy, research, or advocacy, might be like. The speakers have just been incredibly inspiring; each of them has offered some piece of fresh and practical advice, highlighted through the stories of their own journeys to where they are today.

I would love to recount here the many useful things I have learned, not just about careers in international policy, but also about the insight about issues I was already interested in, but if I did that now, I’d probably double the length of the speaker notes that I have at the moment. 

A summary of today's activities:

During the conference, we were given the chance to choose between two different tracks – Global Health and Education and Human Rights. Because I’m a part of the Global Health and Education track, Tuesday was filled with speakers from global health organizations, education, governmental organizations, research groups, each offering their own perspective on working on the same issue. A key theme seems to be greater cooperation among non-profits and organizations, although that’s clearly much easier said than done. I liked the concise manner in which the Global Health Initiative's principal goals are towards integration, country-ownership, and gender equality. 

We also had our first site visit today, and I additionally began my more personal site visits of the touristy parts of DC including the White House, the National Mall, and the Smithsonian. Luckily, given our choices for the site visits, we were able to attend my number one choice: the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. This organization has its focus more in academia, offering yet another perspective on policy to the conference, and as a recent graduate, one that I’m more familiar with. We had the pleasure of speaking with the Director of the Latin America program, Dr. Cynthia Arnson and Dr. Ann Phillips a current Public Policy Scholar at the center. Hearing the both of them speak only further confirmed by interests in all issues Latin America-related and I can't wait to follow up with more work that is being done by both these women and the Center.

Naturally, some common themes have arisen. Most importantly, each one of the speakers have emphasized that knowing what the future holds isn’t a prerequisite for success, something I’ve known and realized within the past year after studying abroad and being involved with INSPIRE but definitely need reminding of from time to time. Following your passion, taking what life hands you, trying new fields/experiences, all those things are things that I like doing and things that I have already identified that I am good at. In fact, I’m bad at making plans. I don’t like thinking about the future in a definitive, long-winded way; I’d rather progress in this manner of following what intuitively strikes me as interesting, which so far has been filled with surprises and turns along the way that have always turned out for the better. Hearing from these women that at my age, the majority of them didn’t actually know what they wanted to do is very comforting and makes me further excited to just continue learning and asking questions.