The Georgetown Voice, 4/26/19

A pril 26, 2019

"NO LONGER IN THE SHADOWS" 11 years after its inception, Lavender Graduation exemplifies change on campus

10 PIVOT PROGRAM CREATES OPPORTUNITIES FOR RETURNING CITIZENS

15 .PAAK AT IT AGAIN

12 D.C. RESIDENTS BRING RACIAL EQUITY TO THE CITY’S CLIMATE CHANGE CONVERSATION

Contents 4

April 26, 2019 Volume 51 | Issue 16

Celebrating 50 Years

editorials

Reevaluate Grading Curves, Assess Students Fairly

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carrying on

The Price of Silence ANONYMOUS

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news Executive Editor Features Editor News Editor Assistant News Editors

opinion Executive Editor Voices Editor Assistant Voices Editor Editorial Board Chair Editorial Board

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feature

Pivot Program Creates Opportunities for Returning Citizens JULIA PINNEY

voices

Campaign With Compassion

CLAIRE GOLDBERG

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voices

To All the Times I’ve Wanted to Leave the Hilltop

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feature

D.C. Residents Bring Racial Equity to the City’s Climate Change Conversation

cover story

“No Longer in the Shadows”: Lavender Graduation Exemplifies Change on Campus ROMAN PEREGRINO

Lizz Pankova Leina Hsu Natalie Chaudhuri Inès De Miranda Sienna Brancato, Delaney Corcoran, Annemarie Cuccia, Margaret Gach, Claire Goldberg, Julia Pinney, Noah Telerski, Jack Townsend

leisure Executive Editor Brynn Furey Leisure Editor Ryan Mazalatis Assistant Editors Anna Pogrebivsky, Juliana Vaccaro De Souza Halftime Editor Skyler Coffey Assistant Halftime Editors Teddy Carey, Samantha Tritt, John Woolley

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sports Executive Editor Sports Editor Assistant Editor Halftime Editor Assistant Halftime Editors

leisure

Disneynature's Penguins Melts Hearts and Expectations

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“If people don’t know where their next meal is coming from, they’re just not in a position to talk about something that’s abstract [like climate change], even if it’s not abstract, even if it is flooding their basement.”

Aaron Wolf Will Shanahan Tristan Lee Nathan Chen Ethan Cantrell, Josi Rosales

design Jacob Bilich Delaney Corcoran, Olivia Stevens Egan Barnitt Timmy Adami, Josh Klein, Cade Shore Staff Designers Marie Luca, Ally West, Amy Zhou

Executive Editor Spread Editors Cover Editor Assistant Design Editors

SKYLER COFFEY

MARGARET GACH

STELLA CAI

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Jack Townsend Katherine Randolph Rachel Cohen Annemarie Cuccia, Caroline Hamilton, Roman Peregrino

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leisure

.Paak At It Again

NICOLE LAI

copy Copy Chief Neha Wasil Assistant Copy Editors Maya Knepp, Sophie Stewart, Editors Mya Allen, Julian Daza, Max Fredell, Stephanie Leow, Moira Phan, Madison Scully, Cindy Strizak, Maya Tenzer, Kristin Turner, Rachel Weinman

multimedia Executive Editor Podcast Editor Assistant Podcast Editor Photo Editor

Kayla Hewitt Panna Gattyan Peter Guthrie John Picker

online on the cover

Executive Editor Jake Glass Website Editor Cam Smith Social Media Editor Karissa Teer

business General Manager Maggie Grubert Assistant Manager of Leah Fawzi Accounts & Sales Assistant Manager of Alice Gao Alumni Outreach

PG. 12

support The opinions expressed in The Georgetown Voice do not necessarily represent the views of the administration, faculty or students of Georgetown University, unless specifically stated. Columns, advertisements, cartoons and opinion pieces do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editorial Board or the General Board of The Georgetown Voice. The university subscribes to the principle of responsible freedom of expression of its student editors. All materials copyright The Georgetown Voice, unless otherwise indicated.

contact us

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photo by julia pinney; illustration by timmy adami

THE GEORGETOWN VOICE

editor@georgetownvoice.com Leavey 424 Box 571066 Georgetown University Washington, DC 20057

“Growth”

EGAN BARNITT

Associate Editors Emily Jaster, Hannah Song Contributing Editors Dajour Evans, Damian Garcia, Julia Pinney Staff Writers Kent Adams, Luis Borrero, Haley D’Alessio, Bradley Galvin, Darren Jian, Dominic Parente, Zach Pulsifer

photo of farrell by john picker; photo of hockey by elliot/wikimedia

Support NASC Petition and Native Students on Campus

Editor-In-Chief Sienna Brancato Managing Editor Noah Telerski

Page 3

An eclectic collection of jokes, puns, doodles, playlists, and news clips from the collective mind of the Voice staff.

→ MARGAUX'S ANIMAL DOODLE

→ SPORTS

Party Animal

→ PLAYLIST

Farrell Inks Pro Deal

→ AFTERNOON TEA REPORTS

One more mimosa before leaving your morning darty is never not a good idea … and that’s the tea. → TIM AND LIV'S QUIZ

When and Where Will You Wake Up Post-Georgetown Day? 1. Favorite on-campus dining option? a. Olive Branch b. Crop Chop c. Downstairs Leo’s d. Epi because your Vil B fell in on you so Georgetown gave you eight million flex dollars in hush money 2. What did you do for Spring Break? a. Had a ~cultural experience~ in Europe b. Volunteered on an alternative spring break program c. Punta Cana, baby! d. Missed your flight and binge watched Dog with a Blog in your dorm room

3. Who are you bringing to Georgetown Day brunch? a. Meghan Markle and her unborn child b. Your boo c. Your international roommate who you kind of hate, but they rich d. Your freshman-year hookup who you ran into on the Lau steps 4. What’s in your bathroom cabinet? a. A weird flavor of toothpaste that you bought at the CVS on Wisconsin on a ~whim~ b. All-natural shampoo c. Six boxes of DayQuil and a condom d. Nair

1. Pray You Catch Me Beyoncé 2. Hold Up Beyoncé 3. Don’t Hurt Yourself Beyoncé 4. Sorry Beyoncé 5. 6 Inch Beyoncé 6. Daddy Lessons Beyoncé 7. Love Drought Beyoncé 8. Sandcastles Beyoncé 9. Forward Beyoncé 10. Freedom Beyoncé 11. All Night Beyoncé 12. Formation Beyoncé

→ HALFTIME SPORTS PREVIEW

Voice Hockey Experts Round 2 Predictions The hockey “experts” make their predictions for the second round of these insane Stanley Cup playoffs (even though nobody’s picked more than three out of eight series correctly). Read more on georgetownvoice.com if you like hockey or you just want to laugh at our experts crashing and burning in their predictions!

Mostly a’s: 10p.m. on Lau 2, holding an iced midnight MUG latte complete with your metal straw; Mostly b’s: 9a.m. in your own bed on Saturday morning. Clearly, you have it together. Whatever; Mostly c’s: 6p.m. under a hammock in the SWQ. We get it; Mostly d’s: 3p.m. in an overflowing VCW bathtub. Get some help.

photo of farrell by john picker; photo of hockey by elliot/wikimedia

Senior forward Caitlin Farrell (18) recently signed with the National Women's Soccer League's Orlando Pride, joining the likes of Alex Morgan, Marta, and Sydney Leroux to create a formidable Orlando attack. Graduate forward Kyra Carusa will also be entering the NWSL, drafted 19th overall by Sky Blue FC.

Lemonade is on Spotify

April 26, 2019

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EDITORIALS

Reevaluate Grading Curves, Assess Students Fairly

F

or the spring 2019 semester, the McDonough School of Business (MSB) changed its undergraduate course grading guidelines. The previous policy, in place since 2009, specified that the average GPA in any MSB core requirement had to be less than a 3.3, or a B-, and included quotas for the number of students who could receive each grade. Now, the MSB has eliminated curves, but professors have to maintain a maximum mean grade of a B. The MSB cited a number of reasons for this change, including that the grading system should be designed so students can see how their in-class performance translates to their grades, while fostering peer collaboration. The MSB has taken the first step in reforming its grading system, and other schools and departments at Georgetown should follow its lead. Grading systems that curve grades up or cap the number of A's are unfair because they disincentivize learning and don’t prepare students for further coursework.

This editorial board believes that Georgetown must do away with curves, and instead ensure that professors stop relying on grade manipulation as a substitute for creating assessments that fairly evaluate students.

Many undergraduate classes at Georgetown have specific grade distributions set at the beginning of the semester.

These vary by class and department, but as an example, for upper-level Economics classes, the top 40 percent of the class receives A's and A-'s, the next 45 percent B's, and the last 15 percent C's. This curve is in place because many students do so poorly that, in order for a sufficient number to pass the class, their grades must be curved up. This allows students who are not learning the course material to still feel as if they are doing well. Students will get a 65 percent on a test and panic but are mollified when they see that with the curve they will get a B+.

On the other hand, some departments curve grades down by creating a grade cap. The Government department implemented a cap in the spring of 2015 which makes it so only 40 percent of students in introductory courses can receive A's and A-'s. This editorial board feels that this is an arbitrary system that only serves to make the department seem more competitive to the numerous students who come to Georgetown to study government. Limiting the number of students who can receive A's does a disservice to the many students who work hard to earn those grades.

In the fall of 2018, the School of Foreign Service introduced a school-wide science requirement, and when the majority of students in those classes ended up getting A's, the school implemented a curve to alter the grade distribution.

Some people who earned A's were subsequently curved down and finished with B+'s.

Curves have been known to foster a more competitive environment, where students are discouraged from working together because the more they help their peers, the worse they may do in a class. But this editorial board believes that the biggest issue with curves is that they create the possibility for teachers to give extremely difficult tests, or tests that students are unprepared for, without facing any consequences. Grades no longer reflect students’ performance but rather their relative lack of understanding of the material in comparison to their classmates. This problem has persisted for years, and more and more students pass classes without adequate knowledge because of it.

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THE GEORGETOWN VOICE

The students hurt most under this system are those majoring in departments with curves. If they pass a class with only a 65 percent understanding of the material, when they take the next level course they will have a faulty knowledge base, making it even more difficult for them to succeed.

Students and professors should be panicked when the majority of their class receives a failing grade. Curves are a tool that enables an inherently flawed and faulty teaching system in which the focus is placed on a student’s performance in comparison to their peers instead of the amount of information they have actually learned.

We urge the administration and faculty to fix the way classes are taught and the way exams are designed.

If exams sufficiently cover what is taught in class, then students will get better scores and naturally fit into an appropriate grade distribution. If a class is too difficult and students are failing, instituting a curve to bump up their grades does not address the fact that students are not understanding the course material. If students are doing too well and having their grades lowered by a curve, then the purpose of the grades changes—is it now to make a class seem more difficult than it is? Georgetown should neither discredit the hard work students put into their studies nor allow professors to redistribute grades instead of addressing the root of the problem. G

Support NASC Petition and Native Students

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he Native American Student Council (NASC), the only Native undergraduate student group at Georgetown, submitted a petition to the Office of the President on April 3. The petition reminded the campus that despite progress made regarding the university’s history with slavery in the form of the GU272 Referendum, Native issues remain largely unrecognized.

This editorial board believes the university must make concrete steps toward the demands made in the petition.

These include hiring a Native Program Coordinator, creating an Indigenous Studies major and/or minor, crafting a land recognition statement which would be read at university events to acknowledge the history of the university’s land, and establishing a dedicated space for Native spiritual practices. Each of the demands addresses a struggle that Native Georgetown students currently face and if remedied could significantly improve their experience on campus.

Native Americans and Indigenous peoples are some of the least recognized groups on campus and are not offered much institutional support by the university. To make matters worse, these students also find a lack of support within the larger Georgetown community. There are very few Native students on campus, none of whom are of the same tribes, which makes it difficult to create solidarity. It is easy for those students to feel isolated in a community that is not cognizant of Native issues.

While attending school in D.C., Native students are surrounded by images of the Washington Redskins, whose name and logo have been widely criticized as offensive to indigenous peoples. On campus, racially insensitive phrases such as “going off the reservation” are used without being acknowledged as offensive, which contributes to a culture of microaggressions against Native Americans.

Georgetown has also exhibited a clear disrespect of Native people through the continued celebration of Columbus Day, which NASC has asked be renamed Indigenous People’s Day.

For Native students who come from vibrant Native communities, this culture creates a campus that is unwelcoming, making them feel marginalized and alone.

Regardless of how small Georgetown's Native community is, this treatment is unacceptable. We believe this could be combatted through efforts by Georgetown to support Native students, both by accepting NASC’s petition and working to create a more welcoming and inclusive culture on campus.

NASC has expressed its frustration with the university’s bureaucratic structure and the difficulties it has created for the group. NASC attempts to reach out to the few Native students on campus to create the largest community possible. However, students do not have access to records of which students are Native due to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, so NASC has to rely on other Native students to find them instead. With the creation of a Program Coordinator, a designated faculty member would be available to help reach Native students and advocate for Native issues within the administration.

As a university, Georgetown has the opportunity to conduct research and educate others on Native history and issues. This editorial board believes that this ability should be translated into an Indigenous Studies academic program, so any student can take classes on Native history, a subject largely ignored on campus. Georgetown should also make an active effort to incorporate more Native history into its core curriculum and to hire Native faculty and staff. The university can use its resources to bring more Native speakers to campus and create a working group on the university’s history with Native peoples.

One issue this working group ought to explore is that the land Georgetown currently occupies was previously the land of the Piscataway people. The first Jesuit mission in America was established on Piscataway land in 1634, after which missionaries converted many tribal members to Catholicism. The Piscataway have been working with NASC to advocate for a land recognition statement to be read at university sponsored events. This is an important step in continuing to acknowledge Georgetown’s past, following the recognition of the sale of 272 enslaved people in 1838.

The statement could be read at major university events and posted on the school’s website. Other universities, like the University of Toronto, have already taken similar steps and made such statements.

Native students also currently lack a cultural space, which limits gatherings and worship. Native spirituality often involves the ritual burning of herbs, which is prohibited in university residential living spaces, meaning Native students have to violate these policies to worship.

NASC’s request for a dedicated cultural sanctuary would resolve this problem and allow Native students to worship openly, in community with one another.

Along with this institutional support there is also a role for students to play in supporting Native students on campus.

NASC puts on several events each year, and students should make it a priority to attend them. Their annual Powwow was cancelled this year, a concrete effect of the lack of support for Native students on campus. Most students arrive on campus without much education in Native issues, which can lead to a dismissal or misunderstanding of Native culture.

This contributes to the marginalization of Native students and must be avoided by self-education.

There is much progress to be made in supporting and improving the experience of Native students on campus.

We urge the university to agree to NASC’s requests, and we hope the rest of the student body will work toward education and participation. G

VOICES C A R RY I N G O N : V O I C E S TA F F E R S S P E A K

Sexual assault is a complicated trauma to process. I spent weeks without an appetite, feeling lethargic and spending days at a time in my room. I had random panic attacks and nightmares, and I constantly checked the lock on my bedroom door to make sure no one could enter while I slept. I stopped hanging out with anyone who’d been at that party. I counted down the days until I would leave the state for Georgetown, figuring that if I just didn’t have to see him, I would get over it. I clung to the idea that the night was just an awkward encounter. But if it was just regrettable sex, why did I feel so ashamed?

I didn’t report my sexual assault because I didn’t immediately categorize it as rape. It took two months and one of Georgetown’s bystander intervention trainings to realize that what happened that night was more than an unpleasant hookup, but by then all the vindicating evidence was long gone. I could still pursue a case with the police, but it would be one of those dreaded “he said, she said” situations. Even if I did win, it would come at the cost of recounting one of the worst experiences of my life over and over again.

I didn’t believe that a victory in court would stop the nightmares and panic attacks, so instead of legal action, I chose to seek therapy and never speak to him again. Though I know that this was the healthiest decision for me, it was not an easy one. I constantly worry that my silence puts other women at risk, because without facing any consequences, I don’t know that he’ll ever realize that what he did to me was wrong. My decision not to report my perpetrator did not absolve me of the trauma that comes with sexual assault.

I look back on the past two years of my life and sometimes all I can see are the devastating effects of that party. I think about the friends who haven’t heard from me in months because they still don’t realize that I needed them to step in that night. I think about the guys I’ve turned down for fear of having a panic attack in bed. I think about the boy who probably doesn’t believe he did anything wrong, who gets to live guilt-free while two hours of my life continue to impact my world in innumerable ways.

But most of all, I think of every girl he’s encountered since then, and I am sick with shame when I realize that he could’ve hurt them because I was too scared to take him to court.

———— I will live with the guilt of not reporting that night for the rest of my life, but if I had to do it over again, I can’t say that I would’ve chosen the other path.

I could’ve reported it immediately and fought an exhausting legal battle, or I could wait 30 years like Dr. Ford and face vitriol and disbelief from those who believe I should’ve spoken out sooner. Unfortunately, I don’t know that the end result would be any different.

I can’t tell other survivors if pursuing legal action is a good choice for them, but I can say that for every survivor who stands up and tells their story, there are many others who don’t. I hope that in the future, other survivors can feel safe prioritizing their personal needs over the opinions of a society that is not designed to support survivors of sexual violence. While I don’t believe I will ever find any kind of justice for what happened, I do believe I’ll eventually find peace. I can only choose myself and my well-being, over and over again, and try to build a world where other survivors can do the same. G

The Price of Silence

C O N T E N T WA R N I N G

This article discusses sexual assault.

Given the highly personal nature of the events discussed in this piece, the author has chosen to remain anonymous.

I

n September 2018, along with the rest of the country, I watched as Dr. Christine Blasey Ford testified in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee, telling the story of the night in high school when she was sexually assaulted by Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. As I scrolled through social media that day, I saw dozens of posts about Dr. Ford’s bravery. She was a hero, she was a patriot, she was so courageous for baring her soul on a national stage, telling the world about one of the most traumatic experiences of her life.

I wanted to join the internet in applauding Dr. Ford. But instead, I sat paralyzed in front of my computer, wondering if I would ever find myself in her position.

———— The night I was sexually assaulted is a haze in many ways, yet crystal clear in others. I was blackout drunk at a party, and I had planned to stay the night in a spare room. When a sober boy who I knew and trusted came into the bedroom, I was in no state to consent to the intercourse that followed. The next morning, I woke up to jokes from friends who’d been at the party with me. It was so funny, they said, that I would hook up with that guy. None of them had ever seen it coming. None of them realized that my entire world had been turned upside down overnight.

I initially thought that maybe I’d just had an embarrassing hookup. I brushed off their jokes, got into my car, and drove to a Walgreens two towns over to buy Plan B. I took a long, scalding shower, washing off the evidence of the night before. Going to the hospital for a rape kit or reporting the boy to the police never crossed my mind. He had a girlfriend at the time, and I remember feeling guilty because I’d helped him cheat on her. They’re still together today. I feel even guiltier now.

CONFIDENTIAL RESOURCES

illustration by jacob bilich

Health Education Services sarp@georgetown.edu Counseling and Psychiatric Services (CAPS) (202) 687-6985 Title IX Online Reporting Form georgetown.protocall.info/incident-report April 26, 2019

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VOICES

Campaign with Compassion

BY CLAIRE GOLDBERG

S

ometimes politics feels like a hellhole. Whether it's in the Twittersphere, on CNN or C-SPAN, or even just in everyday conversations, it can feel like an inescapable purgatory.

This should go without saying, but politics shouldn’t be hell.

Donald Trump’s presidency has shown nothing but hatred—hateful policies and hateful rhetoric—fueling this hellishness that Americans wake up to every morning. Though the past two and a half years have been filled with anxiety, sadness, fear, and anger, the group of Democrats who have announced they’re running to unseat Trump in 2020 have brought hope to those of us who want to see him out of office. With such a large field, there are plenty of strong candidates to do just that.

In her 2016 campaign, Hillary Clinton used the slogans “Love Wins” and “Love Trumps Hate.” The one thing I urge every person to do, no matter what side of the political spectrum they are on, is to show compassion in politics. We must all show that love truly does win.

We must love our neighbors, love our fellow citizens and immigrants, and love each other regardless of identity or orientation or background.

We are fighting to protect people’s rights, from immigrants seeking a better life here in America, to women seeking access to reproductive care, to minority communities seeking freedom from discrimination. All of these acts necessitate kindness.

Something I’ve seen, particularly on social media, is supporters of certain candidates lashing out at other candidates for everything from their voting records to their personal lives. Kamala Harris has been pegged as a cop for her prosecutorial record during her tenure as Attorney General of California and District Attorney of San Francisco. Bernie Sanders has been shunned for the supposed hypocrisy of being a millionaire while fighting for income equality. There are countless examples of how Democrats have attacked potential nominees in the name of their preferred candidate. But going against other Democratic candidates right now is counterproductive.

What matters most is unifying the Democratic party and uplifting fellow progressives. If we’re going to win the election, we need everyone to rally behind whoever wins the primary.

We must put personal preferences and biases aside and focus on combining our efforts and supporting the Democratic nominee.

I’m not advocating for ignoring candidates’ flaws. We can address their mistakes or faults in constructive ways. We can accept candidates’ apologies, and understand that they are humans, just like us, and should not be held to a standard of perfection or ideological purity. Furthermore, we must accept that people’s views change over time, and a candidate’s policies or proposals from years ago may not reflect their current views. Our elected officials need to be allowed to change their opinions, and we should trust that their new policies are a reflection of their current selves and the best, most recent information.

One of my old friends from elementary school, a big Sanders supporter, has already posted on social media multiple times attacking Harris’ flaws. He did the same thing when Clinton was running in 2016. First of all, it’s April. We’re nowhere near the primaries. It does absolutely no good to target fellow Democrats right now. I know my own personal well-being is a small drop in the bucket of the grand scheme of politics, but it’s draining to go through social media and constantly see people putting each other down. And I know I’m not the only one who feels this way. Instigating debates online is often useless. Our discourse needs to be more constructive and caring.

In 2016, a group of Sanders supporters took to Twitter to harass and downgrade Clinton supporters. I tweeted about a Clinton event I was attending and got a nasty reply tweet from someone whose Twitter profile header was a cartoon depiction of Sanders holding the severed head of Clinton. I remember his supporters attacking Clinton for Benghazi, taking a negative narrative that had been pushed forward by Republicans and using it in the name of their progressive candidate.

Not to spend too much time reliving the 2016 election, but one of the campaign’s most upsetting themes was the group of Democrats who refused to vote for Clinton, whether they decided to vote independent, to write in Sanders, or even to vote for Trump. Whoever the nominee is this cycle, whether it’s Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg, Harris, Sanders, or any of the other candidates, we must pledge to vote for them.

Distaste for candidates grows out of infighting. We must foster trust in each progressive 2020 contender and encourage every Democrat, no matter how far left or center they are, to 6

THE GEORGETOWN VOICE

Claire Goldberg is a government major from Southern California. She is a C.J. Cregg stan.

illustration by olivia stevens

rally behind the nominee in the general election. Because if we don’t, Trump will win again.

Trump has created an environment where harassment and negativity fester like a disease. His tweets, the nicknames he gives his opponents, and his policies showcase his deepseated hatefulness. He has neither compassion nor remorse.

Many of his supporters have also taken his lead in online harassment, some going to extremes and committing hate crimes and acts of violence in his name. Not only do voters and supporters need to be kind to overcome this, we need a compassionate and caring candidate to get Trump out of office. We need to do everything in our power to make sure that happens.

Although I’ve been writing about the need to get Trump out of office, I want to stress the importance of working to elect Democrats across the country, in local offices and in Congress. While the presidency will be front and center this cycle, there are so many important races to be won this year and next. If Democrats can win back the Senate and maintain the House, then we can start to pass policies that help and protect people across the country and around the world. If Democrats can pick up governorships and positions in state legislatures, we can make sure that we are enacting positive change on every level and promoting a stronger democracy for all.

No matter who your preferred candidate is, no matter if you have a favorite or if you haven’t decided yet, all I ask is that you practice compassion in your political endeavors.

Lift up your candidate's record, their background, their message, and anything else about them that inspires you.

We should also commend other candidates, even if they are not our favorite, for their admirable policies and actions.

Support each other instead of getting into pointless and derogatory arguments on Twitter or in real life. We are all fighting for equality, for justice, and for freedom. Lift up that message instead of trying to tear each other down.

So I ask you, stop fighting on the internet, stop calling each other names, stop bringing up things from candidates’ pasts that they’ve apologized for or that don’t reflect who they are today. Instead, go knock on doors, make calls, and organize to ensure we get every person to get out and vote.

Let’s show the world that love wins. G

VOICES

To All the Times I’ve Wanted to Leave the Hilltop

BY STELLA CAI

illustration by olivia stevens

"I

’m definitely coming to Georgetown!”

A high school senior said this to me a few weeks ago, after I shared my study abroad experience with prospective students and families while on a panel for a Georgetown Admissions Ambassador Program (GAAP) weekend.

Her palpable excitement reminded me of how I felt as a prospective student, four years ago. As I said goodbye to her, I made a silent wish that she would love her time at Georgetown, love it enough for the both of us.

Freshman year, I entered the College with an undeclared major and a vague notion of pursuing environmental science and policy. I took a mix of classes, none of which I particularly enjoyed. At the end of freshman year, I applied to transfer to the School of Foreign Service (SFS) to major in Science, Technology, and International Affairs (STIA). When I learned over the summer that my transfer application had been approved, I said yes without giving it much thought, mostly under the impression that the SFS was the most prestigious school at Georgetown.

Come sophomore year, I balked at the sheer number of core requirements in the SFS. I took 19 credits that spring, and unsurprisingly, that did not go well. I decided to take Multivariable Calculus to fulfill a STIA requirement, and let’s just say it was not an experience I would choose to relive.

Having left home and gone to boarding school when I was 14, I did not feel particularly liberated by coming to college. I was used to living in dorms and making decisions for myself. I made good friends at Georgetown, but everyone always seemed to be too busy to go on hikes or explore the city with me. I remember being particularly appalled one day when a friend said her outfit was too perfect to sit on the grass. I also noticed that people claimed to care about important issues in the world, such as climate change, but their daily actions fell short of their articulate words. I knew there had to be more to college than endless deadlines and reading long, dry academic articles.

Desperate to free myself from this beast of a school that seemed to be swallowing me alive, I decided to study abroad for my entire junior year at the University of Melbourne in Australia. This was not easy, as Georgetown seemed to make my wish to leave impossible. “You know, it’s very uncommon for STIA majors to do a full year abroad,” my dean warned me.

But I was determined; I had to get out of the belly of the beast. I wanted air. I needed to breathe. After many persistent emails on my part, my application was approved. I happily boarded a plane to leave D.C. for the summer and the year ahead, hoping not to look back for a very long time.

My year abroad was everything I wanted and more. I discovered that entire worlds existed outside of the Georgetown bubble of academic stress and extreme privilege. At the University of Melbourne, I loved my elective classes (especially Postcolonial Literature and African Music and Dance), the beautiful library filled with natural light, the university food co-op where any student is welcome to cook and share a meal—not to mention the Wine Society that handed out free wine samples on the lawn on a regular basis.

In Melbourne, I met like-minded students from around the world, and I loved living off-campus and having my own kitchen to cook. I relished the eclectic musical and culinary spaces in the city. During the summer, I travelled to Tanzania by myself to live with a host family and taught English and a girl’s empowerment class at a primary school in Iringa. In my six short weeks there, I made lifelong friends and ran my first half marathon. I also started learning Swahili, hoping to return to East Africa in the future.

By the end of my time abroad, I had convinced myself that I was ready to embrace my senior year at Georgetown. When I returned to the Hilltop after my 15-month absence, I was glad to see that my friendships had all lasted and remained strong. Unfortunately, in other ways, Georgetown proved

Stella Cai is a senior in the SFS studying Science, Technology, and International Affairs, and she enjoys naming her houseplants.

to be exactly how I remembered it: lots of deadlines and lots of stress.

Adjustment proved difficult, and I felt constantly overwhelmed. I dreaded my weekly Middle East I discussion section because I never had time to do the readings, and the class was a constant reminder of how little I knew about the subject and how much everyone else seemed to know. The beast swallowed me back up, and this time, I had nowhere to run.

This is my last semester at Georgetown, and I’m finally free from the seemingly never-ending list of required classes (well, apart from International Trade). Finally able to take what I want, I decided to enroll in Biotechnology and Security, African Politics through Film and Fiction, Ethnicity and Nationalism in Africa, and Beginner Swahili.

Only in my final semester have I truly enjoyed my classes and established relationships with professors outside of the classroom. Yes, I do wish it had happened sooner, but better late than never, right? As I get ready to graduate in May, I realize there are so many classes that I wish I had taken but will no longer have the opportunity to.

Even amidst all the stress and struggle, I’ve discovered so many little joys during my time at Georgetown. During spring break of freshman year, I went on a backpacking trip with Outdoor Education to Utah. There, I fell in love with the weight of my giant backpack on my shoulders and the inexplicable exhilaration that comes with walking for miles and miles with layers of dirt under my fingernails. After that trip, I bought my own backpack and went on to do more backpacking trips—in Iceland over the summer, in North Carolina my sophomore year, and in Australia and New Zealand during my year abroad. At Georgetown, I have found room to breathe on the trail in Glover Archbold Park, the Capital Crescent bike trail, and the weekly DuPont Circle Farmers’ Market. Most importantly, I have formed so many beautiful friendships here, and I would not trade them for anything else in the world.

If there’s anything that Georgetown has taught me, it’s that growth is uncomfortable. The truth is, college is hard regardless of which university you choose. When I talk to friends at different universities across the country, I realize we all share this sentiment of stress and sleep-deprivation, but also the excitement of exploring various newfound passions. Despite all the times I’ve wanted to leave Georgetown, I have discovered so many aspects of myself and my interests here, and I can’t wait to see where they take me beyond the Hilltop.

“Congratulations and welcome to Georgetown!” I said to that high school senior during GAAP weekend. I surprised myself when I realized that I wholeheartedly meant it. I know that she will have her fair share of struggles and doubts on the Hilltop, but she will also learn about herself and grow in ways that she would never have imagined possible. And for that, she will be forever grateful. G

April 26, 2019

7

LAVENDER GRADUATION EXEMPLIFIES CHANGE ON CAMPUS

BY ROMAN PEREGRINO

S

hiva Subbaraman could not help but chuckle about how much life for LGBTQ students has changed since her first day at Georgetown. “Every which way you can dream of,” she said.

Subbaraman has been director of Georgetown’s LGBTQ Resource Center since its founding in August 2008 and has seen these shifts up close. For her, nothing exemplifies this change better than Lavender Graduation, an event that honors LGBTQ and allied students for their achievements on campus.

“To do a ceremony that would honor LGBTQ students was considered quite revolutionary and quite out of the box,” Subbaraman said about the event hosted by the Center, which in 2008 became the first of its kind to gain formal support by a Catholic university. “From an institutional perspective, it’s one thing to support, but it’s another thing to honor us. That’s way outside of the scope of the imagination in a Catholic context.”

On April 25, 147 students in formal wear will file into the Healey Family Student Center’s Great Room for this year’s Lavender Graduation. The guest list numbers more than 400 and includes the university president, provost, deans, and professors. Students will be called up, honored, and presented with rainbow cords by members of the faculty.

While convocation for the class of 2019 is still a few weeks away, these students are ready to celebrate now.

“I am always excited for Lav Grad because it is a great opportunity to see the whole university come together in celebration of LGBTQ identities and struggles,” Allen Easterling (SFS ’19) wrote in an email to the Voice. “Seeing so many students gathered together in community is a truly heartwarming experience, and now I get to be a part of that as a graduating senior.”

Besides representing a gathering of Georgetown's LGBTQ seniors, Lavender Graduation is also an opportunity to hear from alumni. This year, two recent alums who hope to share their stories with students will give the invocation and keynote.

Joshua Guzmán (SFS ’10), assistant professor of gender and sexuality at the University of California, Los Angeles and the event’s keynote speaker, remembers his Lavender Graduation fondly, but has not attended one since. He looks forward to seeing how the campus climate has changed.

“You used to attend in regular clothes with your friends,” Guzmán said. “Seeing how big it’s grown, I am very excited to see it.”

Joseph Graumann (SFS ’11), a pastor at St. Stephen's Lutheran Church in Marlborough, Massachusetts and this year’s invocation speaker, is also excited to return, especially since he could not attend his own Lavender Graduation due to a skin cancer diagnosis. He knew right away what he wanted to bring to the event.

“I think it is important to return to Georgetown to pray a big gay prayer for my beautiful rainbow people,” Graumann said.

According to Subbaraman, the excitement that Graumann and Guzmán bring demonstrates how much things have changed since their years as LGBTQ students at Georgetown.

“Most of them had such negative experiences on campus they weren’t willing to come back to campus and didn’t want to have anything to do with Georgetown,” she said.

Subbaraman hopes that inviting alumni to return to campus can heal some of those wounds. “I started bringing back alumni as our keynote speakers mostly to showcase all that the Hoyas have done in the world of LGBTQ organizing, activism, policy, medicine, law,” she said. “They are everywhere.”

Beyond re-engaging alumni, the ceremony centers around the graduating students and honoring their place on campus at the end of their four years. Subbaraman said Lavender Graduation is an opportunity to laud a group whose time at Georgetown has been fraught with challenges caused by their queer identity.

The first school-sponsored Lavender Graduation took place in 2009 after the formation of the LGBTQ Resource Center, a campus support system which has proven to be

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THE GEORGETOWN VOICE

a valuable asset to LGBTQ students. The Center opened in August 2008 after student activists put pressure on the university. Responding to a string of anti-gay hate crimes on campus, students formed the Out for Change campaign to advocate for the rights of LGBTQ students. For many, simply being who they were proved a challenge. “It was seen as kind of outside, you felt like you were different,” Graumann said.

With the introduction of the Center and events like Lavender Graduation, LGBTQ students have become more comfortable with active participation in campus life. This has caused Lavender Graduation to outgrow the rooms that it used when there were 20 or so graduates. Now, the event uses the Great Room because it is one of the few spaces on campus that can accomodate the more than 500 attendees.

“The fact that many of our students are thriving and are successful and are finishing college is an important milestone to celebrate,” Subbaraman said.

While Lavender Graduation has grown in size, it has also grown in scope. Any student can sign up, and allies are welcomed. According to Subbaraman, an ally is any student who has made a difference in the LGBTQ community. “The truth is, without our allies it is very tough for the community because we cannot always speak up. We are not always in a place to be empowered.”

The ceremony also celebrates the Center itself and all it has done for the students who consider it a welcoming space on campus. “It is a space for me to exist in my queerness without worry or stress because it is not questioned,” Easterling wrote. “It is one of the few spaces on campus where I do not have to come out or pretend to be and can instead just simply be.”

Subbaraman remembers that when she arrived at Georgetown, the feeling of isolation caused many queer students to close themselves off from opportunities to be involved in campus life.

“LGBTQ students did not do much else but be closeted, be fearful, and take part in GUPride,” Subbaraman said. “I certainly think being a member of

the LGBTQ community can be a barrier to success and to being successful in school.”

In an Oct. 27, 2007 speech, regarding the implementation of new resources for LGBTQ students, university President John DeGioia concurred. “To do the difficult, demanding work of personal formation, you need a sense of security,” he said. “We all need that. When that security is absent, or when we are in doubt about the environment in which we are living, it is difficult to do the very best work of which we are capable.”

From the top down, the university moved toward change. The administration created three working groups on education, resources, and reporting that focused on LGBTQ issues at Georgetown, eventually forming the LGBTQ Resource Center in 2008.

While many students today take the Center as a given on campus, the existence of a space at Georgetown specifically for queer students was revolutionary in 2008. Before then, there were no LGBTQ resource centers at any Catholic university in the country. However, DeGioia referenced Catholic values as guiding his decision.

“What are the resources that the Catholic moral tradition brings to the core work of providing an educational environment in which every individual can flourish?” DeGioia asked. “Which ways of working towards this goal are most appropriate and authentic to our Catholic and Jesuit identity, and which are not?”

Subbaraman became the Center’s first director and set to work helping to fix the campus culture she said was holding LGBTQ students back. Change came quickly, according to Graumann.

“It seemed like LGBTQ students were visible and had agency and were affirmed by the university,” he said. “To have a space to call our own that was brightly decorated, that was full of queer people, meant a lot. It became a place of activism, of welcome, of education.”

For Guzmán, the Center offered a platform for important discussions about the LGBTQ community. “It not only brings the community together, but it provides a space for students to come together to share ideas, to share experiences,” he said. “It brings in people to give talks and creates a discourse.”

The open atmosphere at the Center connects to the institutional support at Lavender Graduation, which Easterling, a member of the LGBTQ Resource Center’s staff, described as valuable. “It’s especially important for me to see a lot of university administrators in attendance,” Easterling said. “To see that they were there and actively supporting the community, even by just attending, it is an important thing for students to see.”

Guzmán was not surprised by the university’s committment to LGBTQ students. “This is one of Georgetown's strengths: to promote understanding and discourse around difference,” he said.

However, institutional backing does not mean everyone supports LGBTQ programs like Lavender Graduation.

“If I do it during graduation time, parents will not come,” Subbaraman said. “Families will not attend because they are still not that supportive. Even if they may be accepting, they won’t come celebrate. I needed to do this at a time when the rest of campus could come and celebrate my students.”

Accordingly, the challenges facing LGBTQ students are still present. Al Castillo (SFS ’22), GUPride’s deputy director of communications and a Queer People of Color liaison, knows that some LGBTQ students can still find themselves marginalized on campus. “As a trans person of color, I understand that it is easy to feel isolated in a majority white cis gay community,” he wrote in an email to the Voice.

Subbaraman realizes there is still work to do.

“There needs to be academic work around sexuality and gender,” Subbaraman said. “There needs to be more education and knowledge.”

"THE FACT THAT MANY OF OUR STUDENTS ARE THRIVING AND ARE SUCCESSFUL AND ARE FINISHING COLLEGE IS AN IMPORTANT MILESTONE TO CELEBRATE."

Guzmán recalls that the student activism which led to the Center’s founding started in the classroom.

“One of my hopes is that the Center can really show the need for more LGBTQ studies classes at Georgetown, to departmentalize the Women [and Gender] Studies program at Georgetown and to bring more faculty of LGBTQ backgrounds in,” he said.

“The ideas started in small little classrooms and grew into the student activism that built this Center that is big and robust now. Hopefully it comes full circle and seeps back into the curriculum.”

While LGBTQ activists continue to strive for progress, the Center is already a place that students can turn for help.

“It is a conduit between students and the administration,” Easterling said. “It channels the needs of students and the desires for change and pushes them up to higher ups. It serves as a go-between to create a better working relationship between the broader queer community and the administration.”

Still in his freshman year, Castillo has seen the Center make a difference. “The Resource Center will always be a comfortable space LGBTQ+ identifying students and I can turn to at any given moment,” Castillo wrote. “The Center's accomplishments and commitments to LGBTQ+ equality at Georgetown University are insurmountable.”

Graumann agrees that the introduction of the Center made a difference, but believes that much of the credit should go to Subbaraman. “The fact that it has grown is a testament to our place on campus and the hard work that Shiva has done,” Graumann said. “She is a tireless advocate for LGBTQ students at Georgetown.”

Discourse on LGBTQ rights has increased over the last decade at Georgetown, and campus visibility of events like Lavender Graduation is at an all-time high.

“When I was a freshman, many of my friends didn’t know about it,” Easterling said. “Now, it's something that a lot of people know about, even in the first few weeks of school, because it's something talked about.”

Guzmán looks forward to seeing the visibility and inclusivity when he comes back to campus. “I’m really happy it has grown in this way,” Guzmán said. “We are no longer in the shadows, as it were. We can actually be together.” G April 26, 2019

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By Julia Pinney

W

hen DeVaughn Bell was admitted into the Georgetown Pivot Program, he posted a picture of his Georgetown ID alongside his prison ID on social media. His family and friends, he said, could not believe that he had gotten into Georgetown. Bell smiled as he told the story—he was proud of how far he had come in a year.

“It was one of my milestones,” said Bell, a fellow in the Pivot Program’s inaugural class.

The Pivot Program is a non-credit-bearing certificate in business and entrepreneurship which assists 20 D.C.area residents who have been released from prison in the past two years with their reentry into society. The program is a collaboration between Georgetown’s Prison and Justice Initiative (PJI), the McDonough School of Business (MSB), and the Georgetown College. It is housed in the Georgetown Venture Lab at WeWork’s G Street location. Fellows take business courses focused on entrepreneurship, as well as liberal arts courses to broaden their thinking. They also participate in internships with local businesses.

Marc Howard, director of PJI and co-director of the Pivot Program, first came up with the idea for the program in the spring of 2016. Howard, a government professor at Georgetown, had a meeting on his calendar with a wealthy philanthropist and worked with the Georgetown Office of Advancement to formulate a plan should a funding opportunity present itself. The meeting was not fruitful, and Howard filed away his idea, at that point called “Stay Out and Succeed.”

Then, two years later, Pietra Rivoli, vice dean of the MSB, approached him to explore how the business school could contribute to PJI’s work. Between February 2018, when Rivoli and Howard initially met, and the onboarding of the cohort’s first fellows in November 2018, the co-

directors secured a team of dedicated instructors and staff. The complete cohort of fellows began taking classes together at WeWork this January.

Rivoli said the Pivot Program team sought out candidates with a certain level of academic readiness and the maturity to stick with a year-long program, but that the desired qualities the team looked for in applicants for the program were no different than those the admissions committee looks for with any other business school program.

“We looked for people who had a clear image of themselves—that they would be in a different place in five years time than they were today, even if they couldn’t exactly tell you how they were going to get there,” said Alyssa Lovegrove, academic director of the Pivot Program.

Four of this year’s fellows came from another of PJI’s programs, the Georgetown Prison Scholars Program at the D.C. Jail, which provides incarcerated citizens the opportunity to take courses and attend lectures within the humanities and social science fields. The remainder found the program through various avenues such as the Mayor’s Office on Returning Citizens Affairs (MORCA), the Department of Employment Services (DOES), and the Free Minds Book Club which uses reading and creative writing to empower incarcerated and formerly-incarcerated youth and adults. Judge Jorge Vila, a magistrate judge on the D.C. Superior Court, also put the program in contact with several of this year’s fellows.

The Pivot Program is needed, Howard said, because of how difficult the United States—where 70 million people have some kind of a criminal record—makes it for incarcerated people to rejoin society. “We make it very hard for them to get back on their feet, to be able to do basic things, like to vote, to get a job, to get housing,” Howard said.

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THE GEORGETOWN VOICE

Last year, the unemployment rate for returning citizens throughout the United States was 27 percent. Even if you have a GED or a diploma, it can be difficult to get hired.

“People don’t trust returning citizens,” Joshua Miller, the program’s managing director and a philosophy professor at Georgetown, said. “We live in a country where we incarcerate more people than anywhere else, and that means that a lot of people who are great workers, who have a lot to add to a team or to a firm, are excluded just because of this record.”

Bell experienced the frustration of trying to get a job after prison firsthand. He was released in mid-February of 2017, and by March he had received three job offers only for the prospective employers to rescind them when he failed their background checks.

“On paper, I look really good until they run through the background screening,” Bell said. “So that was kind of discouraging.”

In 2014, D.C. passed the Fair Criminal Record Screening Act, better known as “Ban the Box,” in reference to the checkbox that appears on applications asking if an applicant has a criminal record. The law prohibits employers from asking about an applicant’s criminal record before making a conditional offer of employment.

Employers can still rescind an offer if a background check reveals a criminal conviction related to job duties. In recent years, 34 states, D.C., and over 150 cities and counties have passed “Ban the Box” policies.

Howard argues that even with this protection, returning citizens still face hurdles to employment. “People can find out very quickly, employers can find out, anyone that does Google searches can find out,” he said.

Lovegrove said employers often do not take the time to understand all the factors that impact whether a formerlyincarcerated person is a suitable candidate for a job.

“Do they come from a stable home life? Are they connected to other people in their community? Are they secure?” Lovegrove said, “There’s just a lot of things that can help you judge whether somebody is vulnerable or not, and employers, they’re just looking at a paper that says you’re convicted of a crime.”

Though not publicized on the Pivot Program’s website as the principal goal, Lovegrove said an objective is facilitating engagement between employers and returning citizens, in addition to providing work experience for the fellows. “Anyone who has actually worked with a formerlyincarcerated individual is changed by it. So part of what we are trying to do is essentially get people to give it a shot in a low risk way.”

She described an upcoming networking event Pivot has scheduled for early May to engage current and prospective employers with the program. The event will allow representatives from local businesses to talk with the fellows, hear about what they have gained from their courses and internships, and learn what they feel they’re now capable of contributing to the workforce.

“It’s the best marketing tool we have,” Lovegrove said. “Our job is simply to get people to turn up and fall for them.”

Miller said one of the program’s larger goals is changing the narrative around returning citizens. “We want people to understand that they’re a massive untapped resource and not something to be afraid of. Not just that they deserve a second chance, but that you’re missing out if you don’t have returning citizens on your staff.”

As the fellows are learning to start their own businesses, Lovegrove said, it’s important they understand the foundational elements of a commercial enterprise, such as strategy, marketing, profit, and loss. But Lovegrove believes the entrepreneurship curriculum is rooted in solving problems.

“We spend a lot of time looking at problems rather than solutions because fundamentally that’s what entrepreneurs do. They don’t start off with what they want to sell, but what’s the capability they’re trying to build,” she said.

In his initial meetings with Rivoli, Howard said, they agreed the Pivot Program would include liberal arts classes in addition to business courses.

"

“I believe strongly that the liberal arts, while they might not be measured as well in terms of direct impact on salaries and clear economic measures, help to create well-rounded people who are prepared to deal with the challenges of life,” Howard said.

The fellows are studying subjects such as literature, economics, psychology, history, and philosophy.

The primary aim of the liberal arts curriculum is to build critical thinking and problem-solving skills— both essential to the business world. “All business people fundamentally are problem solvers,” Lovegrove said. “You need to get comfortable looking at a situation where there isn’t necessarily a single right answer, where you have to gather a lot of information, make the ambiguousness make sense.”

Olayemi Oladiji, one of this year’s fellows, says the curriculum has helped her feel more confident in her abilities. “I always prided myself on being a problem solver, but sometimes I get overwhelmed when I see the problem,” Oladiji said. “Now I feel a little more secure when I see a problem.”

The Pivot Program also teaches the fellows practical skills that are vital for the workplace. According to Lovegrove, many of the fellows came to the program without much experience with computers and smartphones. In the program, fellows learn to handle large projects by sticking to deadlines and setting goals.

The fellows are picking up some of these skills in their internships with local businesses, which they began earlier this year.

Oladiji reflected on what she had learned about teamwork and completing a project incrementally through her internship with Northern Real Estate Urban Ventures, a real estate developer and advisory practice.

“It makes me realize that having a team is essential to any business,” Oladiji said. “Basically we all work together to get this checklist done. It helps me go through task by task.”

Internships have also contributed to the fellows’ long-term goals. Bell has been working at Prequel, a restaurant incubator space in downtown D.C. He hopes to go into the catering business and eventually open a food truck. He has worked in management roles at Taco Bell and KFC restaurants but said his work at Prequel has given him a new perspective into what goes into owning a business.

“I’m actually doing the owner’s things versus just being in a manager position,” Bell said. “For me that’s the biggest take-away, to get that look at it from the owner’s perspective.”

When classes end in June, fellows will opt to either continue working in an internship as a step toward permanent employment or enter a venture incubation period in which they will be

We have a permanent underclass, and the way out of that is by creating employment opportunities for them.

ABOVE L-R: Alyssa Lovegrove, academic director of the Pivot Program, meets with a fellow to discuss his business venture; Olayemi Oladiji and DeVaughn Bell do work in the Georgetown Venture Lab.

provided with work space and given access to legal counsel and business coaching.

Lovegrove anticipates most of them will likely seek employment while also working on business ventures of their own.

“I think almost all of them have an entrepreneurial instinct and a desire to create something of their own, but I think most of them realize that they probably need more experience, more skills, and more social capital before they can really succeed with their own venture,” Lovegrove said.

Regardless of whether they start their own businesses, Miller feels the entrepreneurial skills the fellows have learned in the program will serve them in many parts of their lives.

“They’re treating their lives, their housing situations, any job they find themselves in as an entrepreneurial venture, as something that is about risk and reward, as something that requires them to think beyond what they’re offered and change the playing field that they find themselves on,” Miller said.

For Oladiji, a difficult job search helped inspire her to think about starting her own business. “It’s motivated me to find creative ways of making money and trying to be stable because times got really rough trying to look for a job.

According to Miller, one of the biggest milestones in the Pivot Program’s story was when the deputy director of DOES, Charles Jones, agreed to provide stipends for each of the fellows during their internships. Pivot is supported

by MORCA and the D.C. Department of Small and Local Business Development. It also received a $400,000 grant from the Minority Business Development Agency, which is a part of the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Bell said that D.C. is a pioneer in providing opportunities for returning citizens and often finds people he was in prison with wondering why their cities don’t offer the same resources. “I talk to a lot of guys that I was in with from different cities, and when I tell them what I’m doing, they say, ‘How can we get these programs in our cities?’”

Mayor Muriel Bowser, as part of her proposed budget, plans to continue funding Project Empowerment, a DOES program that aims to lower barriers to employment, including those posed by a job seeker’s former incarceration.

MORCA supports returning citizens by partnering with D.C. departments such as the Department of Small and Local Business Development which operates Aspire to Entrepreneurship. This program supports D.C. residents who are on parole, probation, or re-entering society and who own or are looking to start their own businesses. In February, the Bowser administration opened the READY (Resources to Empower and Develop You) Center which provides housing, employment, healthcare, and education resources for formerly-incarcerated D.C. residents.

Lovegrove views the Pivot Program as another way to tap into the abilities of returning citizens and help their communities thrive.

“We have a permanent underclass, and the way out of that is by creating employment opportunities for them,” Lovegrove said. “As business leaders, we owe it to the community to take something like this that is ugly and difficult and hard to do, but do it anyway and create a model that others can follow.”

Howard believes the Pivot Program is lucky to be in a city that recognizes the obligation to support returning citizens in their entrepreneurial and employment endeavors, and places it within broader efforts to address the effects of mass incarceration. To Howard, Pivot is not alone in its work. “We’re part of a larger movement, which is to restore human rights to people.” G APRIL 26, 2019

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D.C. Residents Bring Racial Equity to the City's Climate Change Conversation

BY MARGARET GACH

D

ennis Chestnut has lived in the far northeast corner of Washington, D.C., since he was born. He speaks with pride about its history as one of the most diverse areas of the city and its community resources like Marvin Gaye Park and the Mayfair Mansions, one of the first properties built for African Americans by African Americans in D.C. “I’m still in my boyhood home. People ask me about that and I say, ‘Well, Warren Buffet still lives in his boyhood home as well,’ so I have that to relate with,” he said, eliciting a laugh from the small crowd gathered at the Georgetown Law Center.

Chestnut was speaking about his experiences as a selfdescribed “civic ecologist” in Ward 7 on an April 16 panel hosted by the Georgetown Environmental Law Society.

The Anacostia River is the ward’s western border, and the river’s longest tributary, Watts Branch Creek, meanders through the center of its communities. On sunny days, people walk their dogs while ice cream trucks park next to basketball courts alongside the creek. On rainy days, the waters of Watts Branch can rise to dangerous levels, flooding roads and homes. The D.C. Department of Energy and Environment (DOEE) has predicted that these rainy days, along with a myriad of other effects such as longer, more intense heat waves, will only intensify in the coming years due to climate change.

In partnership with the Georgetown Climate Center (GCC), DOEE brought together 13 Ward 7 community members over six months in 2018 to explore how the area should combat the effects of climate change. But the group went a step further and focused on how climate change intersects with and amplifies the systemic challenges African-American communities already face in the city.

The initiative, called the Far Northeast Ward 7 Equity Advisory Group (EAG), has helped move the national discourse around equity and environmental justice to the forefront of climate change preparation efforts in D.C. Although the project officially ended in September 2018, DOEE, GCC, and EAG members hope to carry the momentum of their conversations into the future.

One of the biggest challenges in addressing climate change worldwide is how to equitably reduce and prepare

for its effects. Finding the balance between fulfilling immediate needs and preventing future harm is a question both at the national level and for local communities.

Chestnut, who was among the first members of the EAG, remembers encouraging people in the ward over a decade ago to swap their incandescent light bulbs for more environmentally-friendly compact fluorescent lights. One woman, he recalled, was not particularly interested.

“She said, ‘I’m trying to keep my lights on, you’re talking about a different bulb and saving the polar bears,’” she told him. “That was her priority, and I had to respect that,” Chestnut said.

Chestnut was eventually able to work with the woman to switch the bulbs, but Ward 7 will be facing even more direct challenges to its environment in the coming years.

The Anacostia River has already seen record flooding in recent years, said Trey Shepard, outreach director of Anacostia Riverkeeper, a non-profit organization focused on preserving the river. More severe rain storms in the future and rising sea levels will both lead to increased flooding in the communities along Watts Branch and could overload the city’s stormwater management system.

Socioeconomic factors can determine how well a community or individual is able to prepare for and adapt to climate change, Shepard said. The median income in the ward is about half that of the District’s as a whole, according to the Census Bureau.

“Things that are acts of God, or man-made acts of God as we’re starting to see with weather, they can be absolutely devastating,” he said. “If people don’t know where their next meal is coming from, they’re just not in a position to talk about something that’s abstract [like climate change], even if it’s not abstract, even if it is flooding their basement.”

D.C. is expected to have almost triple the number extreme heat days—95 degrees or above—by the 2050s compared to now. These heat waves have a disproportionate effect on the elderly, sick, and those who cannot afford to keep their air conditioning running, according to the National Weather Service.

In 2016, the city introduced its “Climate Ready DC” plan, a strategy to adapt to climate change in conjunction

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THE GEORGETOWN VOICE

with the city’s plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions, which is called “Clean Energy DC.” Climate Ready DC included a risk assessment of the city at the ward level. As part of the plan, DOEE overlaid physical vulnerabilities to flooding and heat waves—infrastructure in flood plains, important resources like water treatment facilities—with individual vulnerabilities—age, health, income—and identified the areas at greatest risk from climate change.

One of the five priority areas identified was the land around Watts Branch Creek, which begins in Capitol Heights, Maryland, and flows another five miles into the Anacostia River. DOEE and GCC planned the Far Northeast Ward 7 Equity Advisory Group to hear community input on how best to implement the District’s two climate change plans.

But Jennifer Li, a climate fellow at Georgetown’s Harrison Institute for Public Law who works with GCC, said that EAG members prioritized their more immediate interests, such as workforce development and improving public safety.

“Given all the concerns or priorities that community members face, why should climate change be on the list?” she said at the April 16 panel at the Law Center.

Yet the priorities of DOEE and the community were not necessarily mutually exclusive. “You don’t have to address climate change at the expense of workforce development, for example,” Li continued. “How can it go hand in hand?”

EAG and DOEE were tasked with finding ways to create a resilient environment and community. The 13 EAG members ranged from a high school student to retirees, from new residents to fifth-generation Washingtonians.

The group was also selected to be representative of the community—92 percent of the ward is black, and 92 percent of the group was black. Other considerations included members’ gender and the type of housing they live in.

Chestnut has advocated for environmental issues in the area for decades and helped recruit other members.

“I saw it as an opportunity to engage with new residents because that was something we were focused on doing, getting residents to the table who had traditionally not been there,” he said.

The EAG met six times from December 2017 to September 2018. They were each provided with a stipend,

meals, and childcare during the meetings. These services distinguished the EAG from other community workshops he has participated in, Chestnut said, as they allowed the EAG to include a greater swath of community voices. GCC also brought in neutral facilitators to lead the discussions and contracted with a consultant to monitor the group’s cohesion and progress.

The evaluation consultant, Francella Chinchilla of the Raben Group, identified a “trust handicap” between the EAG members and DOEE in the first weeks of the program in mid-project evaluations filled out by EAG members.

When some members learned that the District had already finalized its climate adaptation and mitigation plans and that the EAG was just supposed to implement them, they wrote that they were discouraged that they had not been involved in the initial planning process.

Chestnut said that this distrust partly stems from generations of unequal treatment by the government toward African-American communities. He referenced government medical experiments on black people across the United States and federal favoritism of white D.C. communities when the city had no elected officials until the 1970s.

“One of the most important things you can do is don’t have a preconceived agenda and listen to the community,” he said. “Find out what is important to them and then go from there.”

That approach led to the EAG’s top three proposals: create neighborhood “resilience hubs,” enhance workforce development programs, and invest in youth education and employment. To create the proposals, the EAG refined the goals of the city’s Climate Ready DC and Clean Energy DC plans to fit Ward 7.

Justin Lini, a member of the Ward 7D Advisory Neighborhood Commission during the term of the EAG, was one of the members working in a small group on the resiliency hub recommendations. Resiliency hubs are centers where residents can access resources such as internet, air conditioning, and medical supplies during inclement weather. The EAG recommended placing the hubs in trusted community spaces like churches and partnering with established community leaders to provide ongoing services. Lini said that it was important for the EAG to recommend the District supplement existing

community resources rather than come in with a new, topto-bottom program.

“One of the issues we have out here is that there are a lot of people who do great grassroots work, but then you have a new program come up and it will offset their resources, it will displace them,” he said. “So we need to bring the power of community leaders to this.”

The EAG’s other two recommendations, workforce development and youth engagement, used a similar process. They linked the EAG members' top priorities for the community with DOEE’s main climate concerns.

EAG members called for job training programs in fields that would help real estate developers meet the city’s stringent environmentallyfriendly building codes. They also recommended the expansion of “green certification” programs in skilled trades like plumbing or solar installation to teach vocational skills to youth who may not go to college.

For example, Lini referenced a job program to help workers develop the skills to fix the city’s stormwater system in preparation for future floods. Lini explained that initiatives like this can have multifaceted effects on the ward.

“One [is] building up better stormwater management,” he said. “But also, at the same time, you employ people, and that increases the resiliency of the community, people have more resources to fall back on.”

By the end of the six-month period, the EAG members were optimistic about their recommendations’ potential to benefit the community in the future, according to Chinchilla’s evaluation. But some members of the group felt they had not had enough time to adequately address race and justice.

“We need to have more explicit and open conversations on race and power,” wrote one EAG member in their final evaluation. “In order for anyone to move forward, truly

Members of the Equity Advisory Group discuss recommendations in one of their six meetings.

with equity, you have to start with the heart in order to create space for anything else to come in.”

Members need to be engaged in the process of planning the agendas and purpose of an Equity Advisory Group, Chestnut said. He believes that bringing community members in just for the implementation of finalized plans, like in the Ward 7 EAG, limits the community’s ability to drive the conversation in the most important direction.

Some members also wrote in their evaluations that they were worried about if and how the city government would follow through with the recommendations.

Li said DOEE and GCC have ongoing quarterly calls with the EAG members to update them on any work toward their proposals. The city can learn from this process to improve community engagement initiatives in the future, she said. The team built important relationships with each other throughout the process that Li hopes DOEE, GCC, and EAG can maintain and use to bring their recommendations to fruition.

"Over the course of the engagement process, we worked hard to build strong relationships with our partners in the community," Li wrote in an email to the Voice.

"The important thing now is for us to keep maintaining and strengthening those connections as the project moves ahead."

The project team has begun to share the lessons they learned with other District organizations in the hope that similar initiatives can grow from the successes and failures of the Ward 7 EAG process. In February, the team shared a community engagement guide with other District agencies based on the EAG initiative. In the leadup to the April 16 symposium at the Law Center, Li and Chestnut led a group of Georgetown students on a tour of the community resources and history of Watts Branch and Ward 7. Lini said he was excited to see a step toward a pilot program to explore the group’s resiliency hub recommendation.

The District has become one of the most aggressive jurisdictions on cutting greenhouse gas emissions and preparing infrastructure for stronger storms and hotter days in the future.

In January, Mayor Muriel Bowser signed a bill that requires all D.C. electricity to come from renewable sources by 2032, one of the most ambitious timelines in the country.

Along with D.C., cities around the nation like Portland, New Orleans, and New York are exploring how to ensure that those most vulnerable to climate change have the resources to protect themselves. Governments and communities will have to navigate complicated legal and financial obstacles to respond to a problem that will most impact their descendants, not current advocates.

But Chestnut said the labor over the decades is worth it.

“I have six children—they’re all grown, thank goodness—and I have 15 grandchildren,” he said. “My focus on the work I’m continuing to do is with them in mind.” G

"Given all the concerns or priorities that community members face, why should climate change be on the list?"

photo courtesy of the georgetown climate center

April 26, 2019

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LEISURE

Disneynature's Penguins Melts Hearts and Expectations

BY SKYLER COFFEY

U

nforgiving ice and snow bombard the Antarctic tundra. After the storm, the plain is desolate—lifeless.

Suddenly, a beak breaks through the blanket of snow.

Against all odds, Adeline the penguin has survived, with an egg in tact underneath her. This is not just a show of survival, it is a display of resilience. Disneynature’s Penguins continues the brand’s formulaic yet effective approach to documentary filmmaking by creating a heartwarming narrative around organic animal footage.

The film follows an Adélie penguin named Steve as he migrates south to the Adélie mating grounds to start a family with Adeline. The two love birds care for their eggs, fish, raise their chicks, and fish some more. Steve also stumbles into a few misadventures involving elephant seals and emperor penguins. The premise is basic, but Disneynature manages to make this documentary into a story about love, perseverance, and family.

This movie shines in its use of cinematography and musical score. The shots are breathtaking—from masses of penguins wandering across the ice and gracefully gliding underwater, to close-ups of Steve and Adeline intimately

touching beaks. The excellent cinematography, while aesthetically pleasing, also brings the viewers closer to the actual subject of the film: the penguins. Through authentic scenes that occur thousands of miles away, we can better understand the lives of the penguins in their Antarctic ecosystem. Wide aerial shots of Steve trekking through icy 80 mile-per-hour winds show his determination to feed his family. Vivid footage of leopard seals hunting baby penguins—as hard as it is to watch—shows the danger that the Adélies face along their journey on the ice floes.

The music in this movie adds a fun flair. The bright instrumental theme that accompanies—and mimics— the waddling of the penguins makes many objectively bland scenes into joyful ones. Simply pausing the chipper whistling and cascading strings as Steve trips or falls serves as effective comic relief. This isn’t your typical nature documentary, and the musical choices reflect this.

Steve and Adeline conduct their mating rituals to REO Speedwagon’s “Can’t Fight This Feeling,” and the ending scene, in which Steve walks across the ice to Whitesnake’s “Here I Go Again,” is both uplifting and unforgettable.

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illustrations by timmy adami

THE GEORGETOWN VOICE

The film is narrated by Ed Helms, best known for playing Andy Bernard on The Office. This choice may seem unusual, and that’s because it is. Disney is constantly looking for ways to separate its Earth Day movie specials from more traditional nature documentaries. Helms’ comedic style fits with the script’s third-person narration—a narration that’s both educational and relaxed. Perhaps more unexpected is the first-person narration Helms undertakes from the points of view of Steve and other animals. Like a dad at a zoo, Helms gives voice to Steve with various, aggressively relatable remarks like, “I should start working out,” and, “Man, I collected some good rocks today.” Many individual pieces of this narration are fairly cringe-worthy, especially when compared to other comedic elements that come across as relatively effortless, like the manipulation of the score. However, since it’s geared toward a younger audience, the movie is ultimately better for it.

Disneynature offers viewers beautiful scenes they would not otherwise be able to experience. This also means, however, that it has a responsibility to present audiences with accurate information. Penguins’ lack of any remark on climate change was extremely disappointing, especially given the fact that Disneynature makes many of its documentaries to celebrate Earth Day. While the desire to focus on an insular narrative is understandable, filmmakers could have inserted a few sentences on the topic, like when Helms discusses the unusual early movement of certain ice floes.

This adherence to a specific narrative is also a result of the brand following its own obvious formula. Bears (2014) tells the story of Sky as she raises her two cubs.

Monkey Kingdom (2015) has Maya care for her son, Kip. All Disneynature has to do is attach a name to an animal raising its offspring to make objective footage into a heartwarming story that audiences can relate to. This is both a feat and, perhaps, a vice. With these human names come projections of human emotions, from Helms’ alltoo-relatable quips to the transformation of a mating ritual into a love scene. Are these aspects enjoyable? Yes. Are they entirely accurate? No. Instead of weaving a narrative, Disneynature may simply be creating a story that does not actually exist.

However, this is the alternative to the cut-and-dry, Planet Earth-style of documentary. With creative flourish comes enhancement, which is ultimately an apt price to pay for overall informative entertainment. One of the film’s most important features is that it is aimed to entice younger viewers. If Helms’ narration, an exciting score, and a compelling storyline are enough to make at least one child curious about the wonders of the natural world, then Penguins, for all its flaws, is a resounding success. G

LEISURE

Ventura

BY ANDERSON .PAAK

1. Come Home (feat. André 3000) 2. Make It Better (feat. Smokey Robinson) 3. Reachin' 2 Much (feat. Lalah Hathaway) 4. Winners Circle 5. Good Heels (feat. Jazmine Sullivan) 6. Yada Yada 7. King James 8. Chosen One (feat. Sonyae Elise) 9. Jet Black (feat. Brandy)

.Paak At It Again

10. Twilight 11. What Can We Do? (feat. Nate Dogg)

BY NICOLE LAI

A

nderson .Paak is truly a jack of all trades: a singer, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and producer. His music incorporates a wide array of influences, building from the foundations of funk gods like Parliament and Funkadelic and soul masters like Otis Redding and Stevie Wonder. Yet he also dabbles in the now, as his music frequently contains hints of contemporary R&B and hip-hop. He is the man behind the gorgeous Malibu (2016), which was nominated for a Grammy for Best Urban Contemporary Album. He won Best Rap Performance for “Bubblin” in 2019. Paak is not a man to be underestimated, and his latest album Ventura (2019) is an indication of his impressive talent.

Ventura is a record that rose from the ashes. .Paak was previously criticized for losing his identity on his previous album, Oxnard (2018). Featuring flashy collaborations with artists like Kendrick Lamar and Pusha T, the album lacked .Paak’s trademark groove, and was characterized by a sense of aggression that often felt forced. However, .Paak ensures that Ventura tackles all the obstacles that its predecessor faced by channeling them into an album that, while mellower, clearly shows that he has much more control over the production, collaborations, and writing.

Much of Ventura is about love—lost and new. The opening track, “Come Home,” featuring Outkast’s André 3000, is a dynamic kick-off that evokes retro-era soul through a spry bassline and hints of flute. .Paak layers on percussion thick and heavy, drawing out a sense of longing—an ache for something more—that encompasses the rest of the record. “I’m begging you, please come home,” he silkily croons and, as a charming meta sidenote, adds, “Nobody even begs anymore.” André 3000’s delivery is captivating, seamlessly switching up the flow.

This song is followed by the single “Make It Better,” featuring Motown legend Smokey Robinson. The track is a feel-good, romantic tune, which explores the desire to mend a tumultuous relationship and make things “better.” .Paak’s raspy, golden vocals weave together sweet nothings, “We would make love / At the drop of a hat / Remember that?” His voice is the perfect combination of hip-hop and Motown, resulting in a honeyed and catchy melody that you’ll find yourself humming throughout the day.

“Winners Circle” is another blissful, love-soaked tune and one of my personal favorites from the album. The bassline plucks at your heartstrings, and the background vocals fly through the air like Cupid’s arrows, hitting their targets every time. The track also shows off the flair and color in .Paak’s personality: “This is not some super conventional, extra slick talk / Meant to convince you of master classes / Reduced to simple form, there's nothing formulaic about it.”

As tightly packed as Ventura is, it has its weak moments.

While there are many instances where .Paak uses his lyrics to show off his character, “Reachin’ 2 Much (feat. Lalah Hathaway)” falls flat, with forgettable lines like, “You kiss me too much baby, forgot to wipe my face,” and, “I thank you too much baby, I need to pump my brakes,” that sound more like a poor Tinder dialogue than the expressive poetry .Paak is capable of.

“Chosen One” starts with too many random embellishments, creating a whirlwind of sound that fails to make much coherent sense, although it does eventually space out to clearer, funky beats and clever lyrics. “Good Heels (feat. Jazmine Sullivan),” is all smoke and mirrors.

design by josh klein; photo by nrk p3; tape by vectorpocket

While the vocals are sultry, the track leads nowhere.

The song “Twilight,” furthermore, is trapped within the confines of its own instrumentals. The repetitive kick and snare pattern feels like a hammer driving into your head, with .Paak’s voice fighting for dominance against the stiff melody.

His politically charged tracks help to cover these blunders. “King James” is a stunning fusion of hip-hop and synth-funk that is full of bite and social awareness. The track grapples with black resistance in our contemporary era and contains gems such as, “We couldn’t stand to see our children shot dead in the streets / But when I finally took a knee, them crackers took me out the league,” and, “What we built here is godly / They can’t gentrify the heart of kings,” all over a tight bassline that makes you want to burst out dancing. .Paak even battles with existentialism on “Yada Yada,” where he teeters on the edge of the void, only to reel himself back in: “Our days are numbered, I’d rather count what I earn.”

The closing track, “What Can We Do?” featuring Nate Dogg, leaves you basking in the blissful glow that Ventura will ultimately be remembered for. Listening to Ventura is like sliding down a sidewalk, with tied-up shoes, pressed trousers, a wide brim hat, loud sunglasses, and the sun on your knuckles. It is a feel-good album. It is charged with political meaning. It is romantic, sexy, and frequently feels like running your hands down red velvet. Ventura is a seasonal album: It is spring bottled-up and broken down into eleven tracks. Ventura signals the start of something new, of something hopeful, while still holding onto a sense of nostalgia and rose-tinted joy. As .Paak asks, “What can we do? To make it feel just like it used to feel?” G April 26, 2019

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