D.C. is lively and thriving. D.C. is friendly and beautiful. D.C. is jazzy and historic. D.C. is full of excitement and people from every walk of life with a different story or perspective worth sharing.

Being in a new city is a great excuse for friends to visit, and having a friend visit is a great excuse to explore the depths of said new city. A couple weeks ago, a friend that I met through my fall semester study abroad experience came to DC to visit me, and as any good friend would, I became a tourist with her.

We took a tour of “Black Broadway”, near Howard University, where tribute is payed to African American artists like Marvin Gaye, Chuck Brown, Sister Rosetta Tharpe , and Aretha Franklin. We learned about the fight it took to keep Go-Go alive – a genre that originated from The District, and joined our fellow tourists for lunch at Ben’s Chili Bowl, a Black owned restaurant originating in 1958 known for keeping the community together and for the famous D.C. half smoke. It was over chili dogs that we shared conversation and heard the beautiful love story between the couple that joined us on the tour.

Mural from Black Broadway tour on U Street

We also took a food tour through Georgetown, an extremely gentrified area of The District, attracting foodies from all over. However, this gentrification was met with philanthropy through a bakery called Dog Tag Inc., dedicated to providing education through Georgetown University and employment for service-disabled veterans and their families. Not to mention that their cookies were absolutely delicious too.

Food tour in Georgetown

Not only are tours a great way to meet the people traveling through the streets of Washington, but Lyft and Uber rides also proved to be a great way to meet fellow visitors and locals of the DMV (District, Maryland, and Virginia).

I’ve met people from all over the U.S. and even the world, just by sitting in the back seat of their car. One man who came to the U.S. “looking for a gold coin on the sidewalk”, told my friend and I that our friendship was beautiful after telling him that we met while studying abroad. He proceeded to tell us to cherish it forever because people just don’t make meaningful relationships as easily when they get older. Another driver, a woman, gave me life advice on my way to the International Airport to welcome IREX Fellows from all over Africa to the U.S. She graduated high school at 16 years old and was very accomplished in her professional life. She told me that instead of trying to live around working, one should learn how to work around living. Advice that I will never forget.

Another man I met who was willing to share a new perspective with me was a security guard at the National Museum of Women in the Arts. He was generous enough to share his point of view of the art that he observes on a daily basis for hours on end. He gave me my own personal tour saying, “This artist is very particular about everything she does, even the lighting”. Without him, I never would have noticed how the shadows on the wall are really the center of the art and not the sculpture, or how the way you tilt your head could reveal a completely new piece. And now I’m going back to see him when the new exhibit comes out at the end of this month.

Artwork from National Museum of Women in the Arts by Ursula Von Ridingsvard

It’s through these experiences that I have been able to learn about and experience the real D.C. The lively, and thriving, and friendly D.C. These experiences bring joy to my little heart, which thrives off of meeting new people; hearing their stories; and learning things that are not taught in schools, whether it be life lessons or history. Everyone here has a story, and I will take every chance I can get to listen and learn.

In the week and a half that I’ve been here, I’ve become accustomed to the hustle and bustle of the city streets. As I commute to work, I pass the men in the hard hats and yellow jackets hard at work, the woman who sits in her lawn chair on the sidewalk day in and day out watching the people pass on their way from their 9-5, the man selling the newspaper at the metro stop yelling good morning to the distracted daily commuters, and the bus that always threatens to run me over if I don’t cross the walkway quickly enough. Although for many people in D.C. this routine is just a part of their everyday, mundane lives, I find myself to be one of the only people smiling as I take in each and every little aspect of my morning commute. As I walk to work, I make a mental promise to myself, that I will never overlook the details and never take my daily commute in the bustling city for granted. As a Midwestern gal, born and raised, I can’t help but want to talk to each individual I pass and ask them about their story, and how they wound up in the city, or if they were raised here their whole lives.

My first week and a half at IREX has been crazy busy, but I have loved every minute of it. Getting to know my team of 25 that I will be working with. A team of 24 strong, independent women, and one very humble man — my supervisor. Everyone that I will be working with this summer has had some sort of experience abroad, and it is so very relieving to be able to work with a group of people that are as worldly minded as myself. Every one of my team members has a story about their experience and how they ended up at IREX, and each team member is so individually unique.

I’ve spent the first week and a half learning about what it is that I will be doing during my summer internship at IREX. My supervisor informed me that in two short weeks 700 young, carefully selected accomplished African leaders will be making their way to the U.S. in order to head to different institutes where they will be learning tangible skills that they will be able to take back with them to their home countries. After their time at these institutes, the young African leaders will head to Washington D.C. for a week long leadership summit with IREX. My job is to help place some of the leaders at different host sites for an additional, extended experience that 70 carefully selected leaders will be partaking in after the summit, and curating guides for the cities that they will be staying in. I will also be helping with some of the planning for the leadership summit that is to happen at the end of July.

This was a lot to take in in just my first week and a half, but I am more than ready for what lays ahead of me this summer, and I am already so excited to meet and be working with the individuals that will be traveling to the United States.

What I’ve learned in the past week and a half is that Washington D.C. is somewhat of an international hub for the United States of America. Walking around, I hear multitudes of languages, some I may not even be able to recognize. I may be biased as an intern at IREX, but it seems that the people here also just have a more international perspective than the inland United States where I was raised. The younger me inside who has always desired to travel and meet many people with unique stories and experiences is all giddy inside as my adventure here in the United States Capitol and IREX begins. Always looking to learn more about the world around me, I can’t wait to see what adventure awaits.

700 fellows. 48 sub Saharan African countries. 3 days. 1 incredible experience. To say that the past two weeks working at IREX has been an adventure, would be an understatement. On July 29, all of the 2018 Mandela Washington Fellows from 27 institutes across the country descended onto downtown Washington DC for the annual Mandela Washington Fellowship Summit to close their fellowship experience.

Keynote speaker, Masai Ujiri, speaking at the Summit

This summer, my internship working with the YALI (Young African Leader Initiative) team involved pouring over spreadsheets, looking through passports and tax back forms, and running errands all over the city. While I learned tons from my co workers, especially with technical skills in excel and salesforce, I eagerly awaited getting to meet our fellows in person. Last Sunday, all of the YALI team packed our bags and moved into the Omni Shoreham Hotel, where the Summit was to take place. The days were long and tiring starting at 7 am everyday and not ending until the late evening. After welcoming the fellows Sunday afternoon into the night, we started Monday with the opening plenary followed by keynote speaker, Masai Ujiri, President of the NBA team, the Toronto Raptors.  Masai is Nigerian and connected well with the fellows. He spoke of how the press often boast that he is the only African to ever reach the highest position in professional sports in North America. Masai saw this differently, he saw this as a place of improvement, because he should not be the only one. That theme kept on throughout the summit, that people under cut the value of Africa, and the importance of Pan Africanism and the potential for countries to work together.

Between ushering fellows through the maze of the old Omni hotel, I got to time keep and microphone run which allowed me to sit in on several sessions. The session that by far stuck out to me the most was the ignite talks. Select fellows were chosen to stand up in front of their peers and tell their stories. These fellows had overcome great struggles such as persecution from Albinism, being a refugee in a war torn country, becoming blind at a young age, and trying to raise a family in poverty. Here were people from all different countries that were only between the ages of 25 and 35 that had already lived through so much, but here they were in Washington DC, having the power to tell their stories.

After several other incredible sessions from a panel on empowering women to a congressional panel with Senator Chris Coons and other representatives, the final activity was the talent show, Wednesday night. This was my favorite part. Fellows dressed up in their traditional dress and preformed, ending in an all out dance party. It was a great way to end a jam packed three days.

Fellow YALI intern, Camille, and I in front of the #mymandelalegacy pledges

The theme for the Summit was “Living Mandela’s Legacy”, in honor of Nelson Mandela’s 100th birthday. We asked that everyone make a pledge on their personal Mandela Legacy. For me, my Mandela Legacy is to take all I have learned this summer through the CAPS program and to continue to work to invest in people at Valpo and as I hopefully continue to work in international development for many years to come. One of Nelson Mandela’s most famous quotes is “It always seems impossible, until it is done.” And while my internship is nearly done, there is still so much to do.

Last summer at the end of my internship my coworker told me her favorite quote, “One person with passion is better than forty people merely interested”- E.M. Forster. But as a I packed 28 boxes filled with cell phones, insurance cards, and hundreds of papers, to be sent to universities across the country earlier this week, I could not help from thinking that maybe 40 interested people may actually be useful. In all seriousness though, that quote has really stuck with me over the past year as I traveled abroad to Namibia and now as I have begun my CAPS placement at IREX in Washington DC.  

IREX is an international nonprofit that focuses on development. In the past I have worked with several very small NGOS, often with a local staff of 2-3 people. IREX though has a staff of over 400 world wide and 178 locally, so when I walked into the skyscraper in the heart of the DC business district, I knew this was going to be a very different experience than any others that I have had before. I immediately questioned how these people can be maximizing the work they do, but I quickly found that the larger the organization, the larger the possibilities for great impact.

IREX’s moto is “investing in people, inspiring change.” Over my time at Valpo, I have taken several classes that discuss the dangers of the white savior complex and unhelpful outside intervention. It is for this reason that instead of infringing on other countries, IREX finds local people with passion and invests in them so that their dreams can be achieved. This summer, I am working on the Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders which is a program part of the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI). This program brings 700 African leaders (who were selected from over 40,000 applications) from every sub Saharan African country to the United States for a six-week program at some of the country’s top universities. Following this, they all convene in a summit in DC so that ideas and opportunities can be shared. Following the summit 100 of them are chosen to participate in a professional development experience (PDE) at local NGOs, businesses, and government offices all over the country. Clearly, planning and implementing requires an immense amount of logistics and coordination. It is my job to help specifically with PDEs and helping to plan the summit. So far, my team of 16 has been incredible and it is great to see how much each of them care about all the fellows, even though often it can get overwhelming.

IREX alumni Faten Ghriss and I after IREX’s 50 anniversary alumni panel

This week IREX is celebrating its 50-year anniversary and with that they had a large celebration and brought back several alumni of their programs. While a good part of my job involves sitting in front of a computer screen for most of the day, getting to listen to the panel of four alumni talk about what they had achieved because of the work of IREX was inspiring. The first guest was Mohammad Al Abdallah, Executive Director to the Syria Justice & Accountability Centre. Once a prisoner in Syria, he spoke out against the injustices of their government and IREX stepped in and helped him conceptualize his organization. Secondly there was Alice Sayo, Founder of Nasaruni Academy for Maasai Girls, Kenya, a school that empowers girls to stay in school and avoid being married off at a young age. The third Alumni was Aferdita Saracini Kelmendi the General Manager of RTV21 in Kosovo and Macedonia who spoke out against the government almost 20 years ago in favor of freedom of speech. Lastly there was the youngest panelist, Faten Ghriss, the Co-Founder of Young Tunisian Coders Academy, which empowers youth to work in the tech industry in Tunisia. These people each were all from widely different backgrounds, with very different struggles which just showed to me the scope and reach that one organization can have. Each one of these people was filled with passion for their cause and and just needed a little help to be agents of change.

While working takes up a majority of my time, I still have found time to explore the city, which has an overwhelming number of free events and someone waiting at every metro stop to talk politics. From attending the Pride parade to walking around Arlington cemetery on Memorial Day, to going to the congressional baseball game last night, I must say that the DC cohort (there are only two of us) has been crushing it.

Jesse, our roommate Katie, and I at the Pride Parade

While I am for sure still learning the ropes at both IREX and navigating the metro, I have already had such an incredible time here. I am beyond excited for the many adventures yet to come in the next two months as I continue to meet and work with people with passion, while I work to figure out a passion of my own.