Alumni Insider’s View…U.S. Capital Day 3
by Ying Ting Xie
This was the last day of the three-day DC trip. I got up
early and departed to SEC after breakfast. Host Brian Breheny
briefly introduced the SEC and show us a brief video of what the
organization does and how its work affects financial activities in
the country. Also, he introduced SEC also cooperate with
foreign country to investigate financial crime. We interacted
with the four speakers working/interning in SEC, and listened to
their stories with SEC and DC.
We departed to Rayburn Office Building to meet with our guest
speaker Thomas Snowden after our visit to SEC. He’s a video
editor of NBC Nightly News and The Today Show from the Washington,
DC Bureau. He shared his experience in NYC and DC, and his
career path in media industry. Mr. Snowden is a humble and
hard working person. He discussed with us how he created,
shot, wrote, and edited stories for MSNBC.COM. Besides, he
shared his oversea English-teaching experience.
After Mr. Snowden’s speech, we welcomed alumni for the Military and
Challenges of the 21st Century Panel. The
congressman Anthony Weiner left me a great impression. He
addressed his concise answer with great confidence and strong
beliefs. But he had to leave early on the panel. Hope I
can talk to him next time I visit DC. Joanne Bollhofer-White shared
with us her work challenges about the health care for retired
military officers. Captain Anton R. Stubbs, a Logistics Management
Specialist for Marine Corp Systems Command, designs weapons and
armors to protect solders and other people in the military. A
newly designed jeep/war tank can stand a blast of a bomb and
protect people inside it. The protecting weapon and armors also
include a full-body armor and lighter helmet. Joseph Razzano,
who works for Naval Criminal Investigative Service, has very
interesting stories about his job too. He resolves misconduct
issues in the military and investigates criminals happen inside the
military. James, the panel moderator, is a trial
attorney. He defends people who work for the government when
they are being sued. The military panel was very interesting,
and the interaction among panelist and students are very
good.
By 2:30 p.m., we finished all the panels in this trip and headed to
the Capitol for a tour. Everyone seemed more relaxed. I
just wanted to go home. Radha kept encouraging me to keep
walking. We , Andy, me, and Scott, the scholarship guy, took
a lot of pictures all the way from outside of the Capitol to the
waiting line of entering into the building. I almost felt
asleep when I was seeing the touring movie for the Capitol.
The tour for the Capitol was very interesting. Our tour guide was
very good. He explained the history of the Capitol thoroughly
and clearly. Before we left the building, I rushed into the
gift shop and brought two copies of reproduction of U.S.
Constitution and a post card.
We headed back to New York around 5 p.m. After approximately
five hours traveling in traffic, we finally got back to the Queens
Campus by 10:30. We ended our 3-day AIV U.S. Capital program with
hugs and goodbyes in the rain.