you have a passion for something, there’s If nothing better than being at the hub of it. It’s a cold and blustery February morning in Washington, DC. One by one and in groups of twos and threes, students take their seats in a crescent-shaped conference room in the United Methodist Building. They’re settling in for the class meeting that will conclude their third week in the spring session of The College at Brockport’s Washington Program. The class is an opportunity for students to come together and share stories about their respective internship experiences with each other and with program director John Fitzpatrick. It also is a weekly venue for students to get a candid, under-the-hood look at what makes the DC and the federal government policy-making machine run, presented by Beltway insiders, many of whom are Brockport Washington Program alumni. It’s a unique perspective not available in classes at their home campuses.
On this particular morning, they will hear about the role of lobbying from former New York Congressman, now lobbyist, and College at Brockport alumnus Ray McGrath ’63. They also will learn how the office of Senate Majority Leader Richard Durbin operates from the Washington Program and Brockport alumna Sally Brown-Shaklee ’99, director of operations for the Illinois senator. McGrath, president of the Downey McGrath Group Inc., answered questions from the group about how his firm decides which clients to represent. A question about tax reform offers McGrath an opportunity to talk about his role in crafting the 1986 Tax Reform Act as a member of the House Ways and Means Committee. “It was one of the most exciting things I’ve ever done,” he said. “This program is amazing. I’m interested in public health security issues. But whatever you’re interested in, there’s an internship here for you,” says new alumna Elizabeth Morehouse ’08, who completed a fall ’08 internship at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank where she helped research international security issues in Turkey. “It’s very exciting to be part of where the action is. If you have a passion for something, there’s nothing better than being at the hub of it.” Matching the right student with the right internship
Michael R. Weaver, PhD, Washington Program founder and director (1969-1995). His first class of 12 students arrived in the spring of 1969.
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The United Methodist Building sits across 1st Street from the US Capitol Building, next to the Supreme Court Building, essentially, at the geographic center of the federal government. The location among the iconic structures of Washington symbolizes precisely what the Washington Program has done for scores of students. It puts them in the middle of DC, at the center of government, politics and policy making. According to program founder and its first director Michael Weaver, professor of political science emeritus, the Washington Program started small. “For a program that started out as an experiment