‘The best semester’ S.C. WASHINGTON SEMESTER PROGRAM ENTERS ITS 25TH YEAR
For Hali Kerr, coming to the South Carolina Honors College was the first step in finding her professional calling. Depressed by the pollution overtaking her beloved Chesapeake Bay, she majored in marine science, envisioning a career in environmental research. Then, while interning at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration as a fellow with the S.C. Washington Semester Program, Kerr shadowed several NOAA lawyers with science backgrounds who were implementing President Obama’s order to improve ocean management and health. That was a few years ago. She keeps waders under her bed now, and she’ll finish law school at Georgetown University this spring. Her semester in D.C. changed everything. “It was absolutely amazing,” she says, ticking off the reasons why: She met her best friend, fell in love with Washington and found her true calling. Since that transformative semester in her sophomore year, she’s interned again for NOAA and worked in the environmental division at the U.S. Department of Justice and at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Instead of spending years doing research — her original plan — she sees herself helping write environmental laws and possibly leading a government agency, “where I could do good work for the country behind the scenes.” Kerr isn’t the only one to make important self-discoveries through the S.C. Washington Semester Program. Now celebrating its 25th year, the program counts nearly 500 fellows who have studied, worked and played in the nation’s capital since the program started in 1991. Many remained in the D.C. area, working in government offices and for national nonprofits. Others returned to S.C. and their home states, while still more went overseas. For Kerr, it’s ironic that D.C. has become her home. As a Maryland native, she’d visited D.C. only once before. The scavenger hunt that program director Korey Rothman designed to introduce fellows to the city did the trick. “We were running all over D.C., and I loved it right away — the monuments and beautiful neighborhoods and diversity, people from all over the world, all over the country, people who speak different languages,” she says. “It’s just such a cool mix.” While many fellows can’t wait to graduate and go back to Washington, others realize the nation’s capital is not for them. They also get a sense if their career paths need a change of course. “We tell students we like this to be the best semester of their academic careers,” says Rothman, program director since 2005. “They will apply classroom lessons to real-world experience — try on a job they think they would want. Students grow a lot in this semester, become more confident, hone their professional skills and make contacts.” Rothman especially likes that students from different parts of the state become lifelong friends. Several fellows have even met future spouses during the program. While it started at USC in Columbia and has been administered by the Honors College since 2009, the program is offered to honors students at 15 colleges and universities across South Carolina, both
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