Claire Goes to Washington

I just arrived in Washington D.C., it's a lot colder than California

How I spent my winter break
written by GS Journalist Claire Brown, 17

Claire didn't go away to a warm, exotic island for her winter break. Instead she chose to attend The National Young Leadership Conference in (Burrr! snowy) Washington D.C. See how she spent her days and how you can get involved.

DAY ONE: The Arrival
It is 4:30 am, which to some is still night time, but not for me on this dreary winter morning. I woke up…well tried to anyway…to attend The National Young Leadership Conference in Washington D.C. This being my first time attending the conference I am excited and nervous all at the same time. My flight left at 7:00 am, however with a five hour flight and all the expected, but totally inconvenient delays, I did not arrive at the conference until 5:40 at night.

The dorms were we would be staying and the meeting rooms were located on the grounds of the National 4-H center, which is not actually in Washington D.C, but in a little town called Chevy Chase a couple miles outside of the Capitol. Upon the conclusion of checking in and getting settled into my room, I went downstairs to check into my first Leadership Group Meeting. I walked into the room and immediately saw twenty strangers, however by the end of the trip I left the conference, saying goodbye to twenty of my closest friends.

The Lincoln Memorial, believe me it is much bigger than it looks here

DAY TWO: A Walk to Remember
Now that I was acquainted with the fellow members of my group, voicing my opinions and thoughts seemed a little less daunting. The morning LGM went well, as we prepared for our first simulation (it would be one of three). This simulation appropriately titled “If I Were President” would be conducted throughout the course of one day. The president was voted into office by everyone in my group, and all other positions were handed out upon request. Following my forte in journalism I requested to be Press Secretary to the President. My job description was basically: follow the president wherever he goes, and be sure he looks good to the press. Easy enough right? Yeah right! The day began as we boarded the buses to visit the Lincoln, Vietnam, and Korean War memorials. The memorials are laid out in a triangular shape each with walk-ways leading up to them, in the center is the reflecting pool and the Washington Monument. As I walked the memorials with “the President”, I realized that every name that I ran my fingers over were the names of countless men that had died for me, for you, for us.

Arriving back to the conference, “the President” and I were pulled aside and told that North Korea had just sold weapons of mass destruction to Iraq. This was all part of the simulation, my first reaction was to suggest that we declare war on North Korea, however thinking back to the memorials I realized that I would not be the one giving up my life, but the soldiers would. It made me realize the power of diplomacy and its importance. Although our choices in the simulation had no outwardly affect, the Presidents and Congress’ choices affect us everyday.

It was hard visiting all the Memorials, but I was glad I got to experience it

DAY THREE: The National Press Club
Today each student at the conference was dropped off outside their senators office, given an appointment time, and instructed to attend those appointments. My first appointment was at the office of Barbara Boxer, one of California’s state senators. She was unfortunately unable to attend the appointment so I met with some of her staff, and as compensation they provided me with gallery passes which allowed me to watch her speak in the senate that day. I next arrived at Dianne Finesteins office, she was also unable to attend my meeting, however her staff was polite enough to inform me that her and Boxer were both currently speaking on the Senate floor. I rushed over to the Capitol building, located right across the street, and took my seat in the gallery to watch them speak. It was amazing sitting there watching my two Senators arguing so passionately on the Senate floor just because they wanted the best for everyone in the state of California.

After the appointments concluded at the Capitol, I walked over to the Supreme Court building to peak inside the actual court room. It is much smaller than one might think, however those justices hold quite a lot of power. The buses picked us up around 4:00pm and we returned to the 4-H to prep for our second simulation entitled “The Supreme Court”. I was chosen as my role in the simulation to play Justice Sandra O’Conner, who is one of only two women justices seated in the Supreme Court. The case was presented to the nine justices, and we gave our ruling. The case dealt with the fourth amendment which guards against unlawful search and seizure, a young man named Kyllo was convicted of growing marijuana based on thermal activity readings taken from his home. Upon the completion of closing arguments we, the nine justices, ruled in favor of Kyllo. Ironically four years earlier the real justices of the Supreme Court made the same exact ruling in the same case. The night ended with an ice cream social, which nobody went to cause it was somewhere around 30 degrees outside.

Here's me and some friends outside the White House (I'm the one on the left!)

Day Four: Capitol Hill Day
I entered the National Press Club with high expectations and very little knowledge of the proceedings of the day. That is the way much of the conference was conducted, the “young leaders”, as I imagine it is sometimes true in real leadership, were not informed of our next stop until we actually arrived there. I sat down at a large round table with half a dozen of the people from my group, we were served breakfast, and then four members of the press club ( and might I had three of them were woman) joined us. The panel members then proceeded to hold a press conference style interview. Kind of ironic I thought, the press being interviewed by means of a press conference. They spoke to us for several minutes, giving advice, and explaining some important tactics in surviving journalism inside the White House. Next we were hurried to another meeting room, where Asa Hutchingson, associate director of Homeland Security spoke to us. Hutchingson was a wonderful speaker, although his subject matter was a little dry.

The day quickly progressed from there onto the presidential memorials. Each group was assigned one memorial to visit and analyze. My group was assigned the Franklin Deleanor Roosevelt memorial. It is by far my favorite memorial. The layout is similar to a maze, walking through each term of office he held (four total). Walking through each term there are water falls and the water is fashioned to symbolize each term of office. During the darkest years of the depression the water runs strong and quickly, during his last years it is still and calm. Surrounding the pools of water are things that characterized his presidency. The memorial is an all out awesome experience. From the memorials we ventured on to Arlington National Cemetery. Arlington is an almost sacred burial ground set aside for those who have sacrificed the most for our nation. The focal point of the trip was to visit Theodore Roosevelt’s grave site, along with his wife and two small children who are buried beside him. The cemetery is a reminder that wars do cost lives, and seeing then names on each headstone makes it that much more personal.

Everyone was emotional as we walked through the Sept. 11 section, even me

Day Five: Congress is in Session

Today, Saturday, the focal point of the entire conference had arrived. Though I won’t bore with a long vivid description, the Model Congress was an awesome experience that brought the entire group (all 350 of us) together in a unique way. As a whole, we democratically elected a speaker of the house, and a clerk, and each member and speaker from then on was elected by the individual caucuses. Caucuses are groups of about twenty that lobby together to promote a certain aspect of the bill. The bill that was brought before “Congress” was an educational bill dealing with all aspects of the educational society. In true legistlative fashion each amendment was slowly rejected, and eventually the bill was voted against. Upon completion of the model congress, we were informed that we had run the longest any group had run so far, and they have been doing this for quite some time. The grand total: four and half hours of arguing, debating, and lobbying. I say who better to argue over education then the students themselves.

From the model Congress we were transported to the Smithsonian museums, and given a time limit of a little over two hours. Now if you have ever visited the Smithsonians, you know that you could easily spend a whole day in just one. We were forced to make our choices wisely. So, banding together with a half a dozen kids from my group, I set out for the Museum of History. When we arrived we immediately bee-lined for the September 11 memorial, I’m not sure that this exhibit contained a dry eye walking through it, including my own. It was such a harsh reality to realize that my generation had experienced such horror before we had even reached our 21st birthdays. It made me think that one day I’m going to bring my children back to that exhibit and I’m going to be able to tell them exactly how I felt the day it happened. The unity and respect inside those rooms was a true testament to our ability as a nation to bounce back.

I can't believe it's all over. I really am going to miss everyone I met while in Washington

Day Six: The finale

Today we had commencement, which I must confess was somewhat boring and dragged out, especially knowing that we had been completely and utterly snowed in, so it was going to be somewhat of a while before we even left for home. As we waited out the snow storm however our relationships only got stronger, each day it became that much harder to leave.

Day 7-9: Snowed IN
Okay so the conference ended up going much longer then planned. Since the staff had no idea what to do with us, we were forced to entertain ourselves. Thus was born one of the corniest, sloppiest talent shows anyone has ever put on, but I would not trade any of it for the world.

Day 10: The Second Finale
Okay so today we were leaving for sure, and this time commencement was even longer, more boring, and yes, more dragged out than ever. After many tears, and lots of hugs I said my goodbye and boarded my plane. I was sad to go, but I have never been so glad to see sunny California again.