Alumni Insider’s View….U.S. Capital Day
One
by Ying Ting Xie
I arrived at school early enough to print out my newly updated
resume, and appeared at Gate 4 on time. The bus left for DC around
10 a.m.. Andy and I, the Entrepreneur course duo, sat together. We
discussed the assignment and were doing the case all the way to
DC. The scenes on the way were so beautiful that I couldn't
stop looking out of the window. We stopped at a gas station in
Jersey and had a lunch break. Rithu and I picked shades for Andy at
the sunglasses stand.
After another two-and-a-half-hour bus ride, we arrived in DC. This
was my first time visiting DC, and that’s why I became very excited
when I saw the Washington Times' delivery/printing building. Since
I was rooming by myself, I got the key from Penni and went upstairs
to finish my coursework. 5:45 p.m., I met Andy in the lobby, and
sent the unfinished assignment to Prof. Boone.
The food in the welcome dinner was good – a very tasty main course
and a cute and yummy chocolate cake. Before the speeches were
given, I got a chance to talk to fellow students at my table: three
pharmacy students, one law school student and the rest of us are
from Tobin College of Business (TCB). The best part of the trip was
I had the opportunity to network not only with the alumni but also
with my fellow students. It is always one of my favorite things to
do listen to different people's life path and experience. The
son-in-law of the legendary James F. Tierney, who supported AIV for
many years and wanted to pass down the tradition in his family,
gave a speech. It is this family exclusively sponsored the
welcoming dinner. Then Laura Cranston, the DC Alumni chapter leader
gave a short speech about how she ended up settling down in DC.
From her speech, I can tell she's a very efficient career woman
with a huge sense of humor. She joked she used to sell legal drugs
in Harlem after she graduated from St. Johns. Then a small piece of
ad on the newsletter at her previous company changed her life. She
made a decision, to go down to DC, take the job, and settled
down.
I enjoyed listening to her experience.
After the meeting, we started our night sightseeing. I actually
felt relaxed after the dinner. During the dinner, I had to be very
careful of what I said, how I behaved, and my dining etiquette. I
still remembered that we were representing not only ourselves but
the University. So in public or on these kinds of occasions, I got
to behave perfectly, but that's a lot of pressure. Most of the
students were very exciting about our first night out together and
have some relaxed and fun time. We when to the World War II
Memorial and from there we could see the Washington Monument. Right
after we got off the bus, John Kelly stood on a higher platform and
started to explain the design and history of the Washington
Monument, the WWII Memorial, the Jefferson Memorial, and Lincoln
Memorial. He's originally from DC, no wonder he was such a good
tour guide. Andy and I took a lot of photos in WWII Memorial. I
also got a chance to talk and hang out with my original roommate
& buddy Radha. We got to talk with each other more when we got
to Jefferson Memorial. During the sight seeing, I had a lot of
conversations with different attendants, and knew more about them.
Robert, who is a history major, explained to me about the history
of the Civil War. It did help me better understand the background
of the Lincoln Memorial.
After we got back to the hotel, my room key didn't work, so I went
down to the lobby and change it. Then I let Rithu talked me into
walking to the White House. She claimed it was only a 10-minute
walk! I called Radha, and she brought her roommate, Erin. When we
walked to the corner right next to the hotel, we met Lawson. We
successfully talked him into joining us on our trip. We ended up
walked almost twenty minutes getting to the White House. We met
team one, the crew that we were supposed to join and go to the
white house together. When we walk to the White House, I could
barely recognize it. It is just a white house, just like Scott said
later on. I was kind of disappointed. You know, we always see a
grand White House on TV, but it looks much smaller. Also, maybe
because the lights were turned off, it didn't look as good and
fancy as it does on TV. We spent another 25 minutes walking back to
Marriott and ended our first day of the program