“I think you get a little bit more of the heart of the city’s identity [by] being here and living in it, especially with the education we’re given.”

Sara Kennel, a third-year global development and restorative justice major at EMU, is currently finishing up her semester at the Washington Community Scholars’ Center (WCSC) in Washington, DC. While working as a climate justice intern at the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns has provided her invaluable experiences like being able to attend New York Climate Week, she’s found that DC living and her classes have also produced experiences she likely would not have received elsewhere.

Being from Souderton, Pennsylvania, Kennel grew up a short trip away from the nation’s capital. “I lived close enough that we would take field trips here all the time with my school. . . it was very centered around these larger systems of power and institutions and what they wanted me to hear and know about the city.” However, living in the city has introduced her to more insider information. “I had no idea this was historically a primarily African-American city when it was developing and that is a huge part of history that doesn’t get told when you’re just coming in as an outsider and experiencing what they want you to experience.”

While attending WCSC, students take classes like Community Development and Race, Space, and Inequality, both of which focus on the current state of DC and its history. “I’ve appreciated the education they give us about the DC area and the social, political, and economic dynamics going on there,” Kennel remarked. “It feels very applicable when we’re walking around the city everyday and applying that knowledge.”

“Ditto,” Andrew Graber replied. “The experiential learning is definitely a cool aspect of [WCSC] because you’re learning things and seeing them play out in real time. I don’t like learning as it is, so that makes it more fun for me.”

Graber, a Colorado native, is a senior at Bethel College in Kansas, where he majors in

business and minors in communications. He’s been interning at Manna, an affordable housing organization, where he does “a little bit of everything.” Like Kennel, Graber has a history with DC, but his WCSC classes have helped expand his knowledge. “I’ve come to the city a lot growing up with my dad, so I thought of it as a cool place to see all the sights and not know too much about them,” he shared. “But it’s been cool to learn the history of the city and how it has shifted over the years.”

As Graber isn’t the biggest fan of school, he’s used his time in DC to do more than just focus on his classes and internship, sparking a new hobby along the way. “I go biking. Since I come from the countryside, I feel like I try to get outside as much as possible, and it’s not like you can do it in the same way here as you can in Colorado or Kansas,” Graber shared. “Biking has been the way to get around more effectively as well as get some time outside, so it’s definitely a new hobby that I’ll probably continue after this.”

As they near the end of their semester-long stay in DC, both Graber and Kennel will take away more than their class experiences and new hobbies, they’ll also remember the many events they’ve come across when exploring the city. One of Graber’s favorites was seeing the National Symphony playing at the Capitol. “It was very cool to be looking at the Washington Monument behind the symphony and then have the Capitol building behind us. And [seeing] all the lights and sounds and tons of people that come out to watch and listen.” He also fondly remembers the movie night on the National Mall, another DC staple: “Everyone just stops for a little bit to watch the movie or people have picnics and make a whole night out of it.”

“Andrew gave two really good examples,” Kennel remarked, having spent time exploring the city with Graber and other WCSC members. She shared that one of her favorite events was attending an artist vendor fair that featured local businesses along with nonprofits. There was also a Latin American group playing samba music while giving samba classes at the event, “It was a cool setting,” Kennel said. “The sun was setting and it was a conglomeration of people dancing, it was lovely.”