Washington, D.C
CPLA members take on Washington, D.C. for annual trip – The Berkeley Beacon
Members of Emerson’s Communication, Politics, and Law Association (CPLA) took their annual trip to Washington, D.C., from April 11 to April 14, engaging with a small portion of the college’s alumni presence in the nation’s capital.
CPLA has been taking immersion trips to D.C. since 1984. On these trips, members have engaged with alumni who work in various industries, many of which are either headquartered in or have a large presence in the city.
Students took a tour of the Washington Center, where they have the opportunity to spend a semester in the nation’s capitol during their time at Emerson. During the program, students work a full-time internship and take two academic courses.
They then attended an immersive workshop on Friday at the State Department, which was an active career panel held on the department’s main campus, and an executive career panel held at the DACOR Bacon House located on F Street.
The active career panel was moderated by Tristram Perry, a foreign service officer based in D.C. who has previously served in Azerbaijan, Indonesia, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Nepal, and Norway. The panel included members of the foreign and civil service divisions of the State Department. Many topics were discussed throughout the panel, the most paramount being how to start a career in the foreign or civil service.
Members of the panel included Andrew Herman, a foreign service IT specialist whose previous assignments include Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and Jakarta, Indonesia. Mikkela V. Thompson is a foreign service office management specialist who has served overseas in Bangladesh, Colombia, Peru, and Italy, was also present.
Additionally, Jed Wolfington, a public diplomacy foreign service officer who works on issues related to cultural change and has previously served overseas in Ukraine, Pakistan, Chile, and Moldova, was also there. Russell Gaither is a civil service officer currently serving as the diversity, equity, inclusion, and access officer for the Bureau of Information Resource Management (IRM) who was present as well.
Katherine Asselin, a third-year political communication major who serves as the president of CPLA, said she felt most connected to the two female panelists throughout the trip.
“The speakers I [most] connected with were the only two women we spoke to, Mikkela Thompson and Emily Horne,” said Asselin. “Perhaps the reason I connected with them was because they are passionate and capable women working in the political or diplomatic field which [may sometimes] doubt their abilities.”
The executive career panel later that afternoon at the DACOR Bacon House was also moderated by Perry and was comprised of retired ambassador Richard E. Hoagland and Emily Horne.
Hoagland’s career with the State Department began in 1985 working with the Afghan resistance during the Soviet-Afghan War. He later held many diplomatic posts including ambassador to Kazakhstan and Tajikistan, chargé d’affaires in Turkmenistan, press spokesman in Uzbekistan, and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs.
Horne currently serves as chief executive officer (CEO) of Allegro Public Affairs after an extensive career in government. She previously served as special assistant to the president, spokesperson, and senior director for the press at the National Security Council (NSC) in the Biden administration. Additionally, she led communication and confirmation efforts for Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. Previous to this work, Horne served as a civil servant in the Obama-era State Department, including as communications director for the Obama Administration’s counter-ISIS efforts and spokesperson for South and Central Asian Affairs.
Hailey Haddon, a third-year political communication major, remarked that having the opportunity to speak with career professionals was a meaningful aspect of the trip.
“It was great to speak with such experienced and highly regarded professionals such as former Ambassador Richard Hoagland,” said Haddon. “[His] experiences working in the State Department were incredibly inspiring, and I consider myself fortunate to have had the opportunity to speak with him.”
Dr. Gregory Payne, chair of the communication studies department, noted that this year’s state department workshop was the most immersive in the organization’s history in taking trips to D.C.
“The State Department workshop and the degree to which [students] had access to very important people would be the best that we’ve had in the past,” said Payne. “The conference room we were in is one where major events occur and you had Tristram, who I think is an invaluable resource and somebody that I think demonstrates what the Emerson value is.”
Students then had the opportunity to meet with multiple Emerson alumni who work in D.C. Peter Loge ‘87 serves as the director of the School of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University. Mehroz Sajjad ‘15 is a Fullbright scholar and doctoral teaching assistant in the College of Communication and Information at the University of Kentucky. On Saturday, students took a tour of the U.S. Capitol building and later spoke with Elias Romanos ‘17, who currently works at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Zoë Berghorn, a second-year political communication major who serves as a co-treasurer of CPLA, noted that her desire to work for the Department of Education was made more tangible by speaking with Romanos, who previously worked for the department.
“[Through asking Romanos] about his change in position and departments, I was able to realize the flexibility of being in the professional field with a political communication degree,” said Berghorn. “[It actualized that] I can chase my interests while they morph through my professional career.”
On Sunday, students visited the National Museum of African American History and Culture before heading back to Boston.
Asselin added that the community-building aspect of the trip was most memorable.
“I love watching a group of people go from being cordial peers to becoming friends, and ultimately a more cohesive team,” said Asselin. “A collective experience like a trip or spending 8 hours together on a train really does wonders for building companionship and camaraderie.”
*Note: The writer of this article is an active member of CPLA.
4 things to know about the weather:
- Chances of rain in the morning
- Gusty Sunday
- Chilly Monday
- Temps will rise again through the work week
Download the NBC Washington app on iOS and Android to check the weather radar on the go.
After a nice and warm Saturday, changes arrive for part two of the weekend.
The first half of your Sunday will have a chance for showers. Winds will pick up with our next system and are expected to gust to about 20-30 mph. Cooler air will settle in, and lows Sunday night fall into the 40s.
Highs temps Monday will reach only into the mid to upper 50s.
However, temperatures will rise through the week, so you won’t need your jackets every day.
QuickCast
SUNDAY:
Showers, then partly cloudy
Wind: NW 10-15 mph
Gusts @ 30 mph
HIGH: Lower 60s
MONDAY:
Partly cloudy
Wind: NW 10-15 mph
Gusts @ 25 mph
HIGH: Upper 50s
Stay with Storm Team4 for the latest forecast. Download the NBC Washington app on iOS and Android to get severe weather alerts on your phone.
Washington, D.C
‘It’s a twilight zone’: Iran war casts deep shadows over IMF gathering in Washington
The most severe energy shock since the 1970s, the risk of a global recession and households everywhere stomaching a renewed surge in the cost of living – hitting the most vulnerable hardest.
In a sweltering hot Washington DC this week, the message at the International Monetary Fund meetings was chilling: things had been looking up for living standards around the world. But then came the Iran war.
“Some countries are in panic,” said the fund’s managing director, Kristalina Georgieva, addressing the finance ministers and central bank bosses in town for the IMF and World Bank spring meetings. “The sooner it [the Iran war] ends, the better for everybody.”
Such gatherings are not typically used to fight geopolitical battles. “You don’t get people shouting at one another at these things,” one senior figure remarked. But, as a record-breaking April heatwave swept the US capital, no one could ignore the mounting damage from the Iran war.
Those familiar with the mood over breakfast at a meeting of the G20’s representatives on Thursday, which included Donald Trump’s treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, and the outgoing US Federal Reserve chair, Jerome Powell – said the atmosphere in the room was sombre amid an open exchange of serious views.
“It is such a twilight-zone meeting,” said Mohamed El-Erian, a former IMF deputy managing director who is now chief economic adviser at the Allianz insurance group. “There are several shadows hanging over it: one is the shadow that comes from concern about the global economy as a whole.
“The second is that some countries are going to be particularly hard hit, and it’s mostly countries that very few people are talking about. But the third concern is the adding of insult to injury: the fact that the US, which started a war of choice, is going to be hit, but by a lot less than elsewhere in relative terms.”
Before Thursday’s breakfast, Rachel Reeves had started her day with an early-morning jog. Joined by her counterparts from Spain, Australia and New Zealand for a run down the iconic National Mall, she posted an Instagram selfie with a not-so-subtle dig: “Friends that run together – work together.”
A day earlier, the chancellor had told a CNBC conference that she thought “friends are allowed to disagree on things” as she criticised Trump’s Iran war as a “mistake” and a “folly” that had not made the world safer.
Speaking at a venue just steps away from the White House, before a one-on-one meeting with Bessent, she said this “fair message” was needed because UK families and businesses were feeling the pain from higher energy prices triggered by the conflict.
Those close to Reeves insist her meeting remained cordial. Britain and the US have significant shared interests in AI, financial services and trade. The chancellor also said the UK government had little time for the Iranian regime.
But with the IMF having warned on Tuesday that the Iran war could risk a global recession – in which Britain would be the biggest G7 casualty – it was clear Reeves had travelled to Washington ready to pick a fight.
“I’m struck by how vocal she has been and the words she used,” said one global financier. “We know the disagreement between Bessent and [European Central Bank president] Christine Lagarde earlier in the year. But that was in private.”
At a cocktail party held at the British ambassador’s residence for hundreds of diplomats and financiers – including the Bank of England’s governor, Andrew Bailey, the chief executive of Barclays, CS Venkatakrishnan, and dozens of senior figures – this transatlantic tension, weeks before King Charles’s US state visit, was a major topic of conversation.
The other, in the balmy residence gardens, was one of its former occupants, Peter Mandelson, as revelations about the former ambassador’s appointment threatened to further rock the UK government.
Before the war, the agenda for the IMF had been about global cooperation; the adoption of AI, jobs and work to eradicate poverty. Each of those tasks had now been complicated, but not least the task of countries working together.
For many at the meetings, the focus was on forging closer global cooperation without the world’s pre-eminent superpower.
“Everybody is talking about how you hedge against American decisions,” said David Miliband, the former UK foreign secretary, who now runs the International Rescue Committee. “You can’t do without them, because they’re 25% of the global economy. But, in a lot of fora, they’ve pulled out.
“So everyone has to think, how does one structure international cooperation? The old west is not coming back. And so everyone has to figure out how to position themselves for that world.”
For those gathering in Washington, there was irony in the fact that they were meeting in the halls of institutions founded, under US leadership, to promote global cooperation after the second world war. The whole idea of the Bretton Woods institutions was to avoid the dire economic conditions and warfare of the 1930s and 1940s. Yet this year’s meeting was taking place amid these intertwining problems.
In their conversations about the best economic policy response to the shock of conflict, the economists also knew the real power to make a difference lay two blocks across town from the IMF and the World Bank – behind the security cordons and construction equipment blocking the White House from public view. “It is not clear they can do anything about it,” said El-Erian.
Still, with a booming economy driven by AI – including Anthropic’s powerful Mythos model, the topic of much conversation – most countries cannot afford to completely break off US ties.
“People want to find ways to insulate themselves from the mess. But, on the other hand, they admire the US private sector,” El-Erian said. “The best way I’ve heard it put, is: they want to go long the private sector and short the mess. But it’s almost impossible to do.”
Washington, D.C. (7News) — Rosselli is the newest restaurant to open in DC.
Bringing in classic Italian flavors, Chef Carlos explained how he hopes his food is a unique addition to the Italian food scene in the DMV.
Chef also demoed a signature dish with Brian and Megan.
BE THE FIRST TO COMMENT
You can learn more and book your table here.
-
Health3 minutes agoLoneliness may be silently eroding your memory, new research reveals
-
Sports9 minutes agoESPN’s Stephen A Smith hears boos from WrestleMania 42 crowd
-
Technology15 minutes agoChinese robot breaks human world record in Beijing half-marathon
-
Business21 minutes agoCivil case against Alec Baldwin, ‘Rust’ movie producers advances toward a trial
-
Entertainment27 minutes agoKarol G at Coachella was a global hit. Yet other foreign acts fear touring the U.S.
-
Lifestyle33 minutes agoL.A.’s unofficial Statue of Liberty is a Fashion Nova billboard off the 10 Freeway
-
Politics39 minutes agoOrdered free, still locked up: Judges fume as Trump administration holds ICE detainees
-
Science45 minutes agoA renewed threat to JPL as the Trump administration tries again to cut NASA