On Sunday, April 6, the newest Into the City group left for Washington D.C. for a couple of days of fun, site visits and experiencing what it’s like to navigate a city. The students all had very different majors and life experiences, but all were able to enjoy the experience.
Besides meeting up at Eisenhower Circle to board the vans to D.C., the students had free reign to explore the city as they pleased on Sunday. Some chose to take the whole day to explore ,while others decided to go on an alumni tour with Morgan Zimmerman (‘21) for the afternoon.
Monday, the students split into two groups to go on their first site visits. This would be the first of three site visits the students chose to attend a couple of months before. One of the groups went to Hearst, while the other attended the International Justice Mission. Both groups of students found the visits to be enjoyable and informative experiences, no matter what major they were.
After the groups met up, they had a networking luncheon at World Learning. Each of the tables had an alumnus who currently works and lives in or around D.C. Students were able to talk to them in a more relaxed setting while eating, before being able to ask more questions in an alumni panel. When lunch was over, two groups split up again for two more site visits. This time, one group went to the Museum of the Bible and the other went to the U.S. State Department. Both were enjoyable site visits, and the group that went to the Museum of the Bible even got to have a preview of the exhibits that would be open the night of the networking event.
Afterward, the groups were able to come back to the hotel and chill for a bit before the pizza came and they were able to eat before the networking reception at the Museum of the Bible. Some of the alumni who were on the site visits were at the event as well, so students had the opportunity to ask more questions in a more informal setting. The networking reception also had another purpose of being the gathering for Messiah alumni and families to see the modern, life-size depiction of the “Descent from the Cross” created by former Messiah Professor Ted Prescott. The display featured plaster statues of former Messiah professors who posed for the display back in the 1980s. Next to the display was also a video depicting the process of creating the piece. President Kim Phipps and Prescott himself also talked about the event and what led to the creation of this sculpture.
On Tuesday, the group split up one last time to the Shakespeare Theatre and the Kountoupes Denham Carr & Reid lobbying firm. While meeting up for lunch at the Shakespeare Theatre Administrative Offices, the students expressed their enjoyment of the morning site visits before listening to another panel of alumni. After that, the students were able to attend a site visit at the U.S. Secret Service. They got to hear many interesting facts and stories about working within the organization. Afterward, the group boarded the vans back to Messiah, but not before attending a debriefing dinner with all-you-can-eat pizza at Bertucci’s Italian Restaurant. Here’s to another successful trip!