The study tour started its journey on Monday with a visit to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) hosted by Tim DiNapoli, the agency’s director of acquisition and sourcing management. During the visit, students learned that the GAO is an independent, nonpartisan agency that investigates how the government spends taxpayer dollars and advises Congress and government agencies on how to improve efficiency. The visit also provided a deeper understanding of the office’s reporting and recommendation duties and its lack of enforcement capacity.
On Tuesday, the group made its way to the Peace Corps office where alumna Kate Goddard Rohrbaugh ’91, a program analyst for the Peace Corp’s Office of Strategic Information, Research, and Planning (OSIRP), hosted a panel of four returned Peace Corps volunteers who served in China, Kenya, Albania, and Saint Lucia. The panel provided students with an opportunity to learn about the realities of Peace Corps service and the program’s core missions of building capacity in foreign countries, sharing American culture with the outside world, and developing American understanding of foreign countries. The Director of the Peace Corps Jody Olsen, also met with the group.
Students enjoy the social experience of study tours, making new friends during the week. This photo was taken in the lobby of the building that houses the Albright Stonebridge Group, where they met with Ken Hyatt, senior adviser on international trade and markets.
Antonio DiMarco ’18 hosted the group’s Tuesday noon-time visit to the Cadmus Group, a strategic and technical consulting firm focused on global issues. Given his recent graduation from Grinnell, DiMarco offered unique insight about transitioning into the workforce. He offered students advice on how to leverage the skills they gain at Grinnell, particularly their ability to write with clarity and concision. DiMarco’s colleagues, Sarah Scafidi and Scott Teper, also spoke to the group about their experiences working in federal, state, and local agencies as well as Fortune 500 companies, offering students a broad understanding of careers related to foreign affairs that they might pursue in the future. Pictured here is Rosenfield Program Director Barb Trish with a student.
On Wednesday, Pernilla Scott, social secretary to the Swedish ambassador, and Monica Enqvist, head of public diplomacy, media, and communications for the Swedish Embassy, welcomed students to the House of Sweden. The House of Sweden contains the Swedish and Icelandic Embassies, Swedish businesses, event spaces, and an art gallery open to the public. During the visit, students learned about the significant roles Swedish and Scandinavian industries play in U.S. business. The hosts also described several of Sweden’s socially progressive governmental initiatives like gender parity in parliament, paid family leave, and free universal healthcare.
Next, George Moose ’66 hosted a visit to the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), an organization that Congress established in 1984 to promote the prevention and resolution of international conflicts. Moose formerly worked as Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Ambassador to the UN agencies in Geneva, and Ambassador to the Republics of Benin and Senegal. Currently, he serves as the vice chairman of the board of directors for USIP. Throughout the visit, students learned about the work of USIP, including conducting and publishing research about conflict resolution, testifying before Congress, and working to resolve conflict on the ground through a network of five offices in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Myanmar, and Tunisia.
The group’s final visit on Wednesday took them to the Cannon Office Building where students met with two staff members from the office of Congresswoman Abby Finkenauer, the Democratic representative for Iowa’s First District who was elected in 2018. The staffers discussed Finkenauer’s duties as well as the work they do to support her, particularly in her role as a member of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and the Small Business Committee. The staffers also shared advice based on their post-grad experiences and recommendations for opportunities to work on Capitol Hill.
Thursday started out with a visit to a World Bank/International Monetary Fund event hosted by Deqa Aden ’18. Aden started as an intern at the bank, where she supported the work of an economist who studied the effects of mental health treatment on entrepreneurial business growth in developing countries. Later she was hired as a monitor and evaluation analyst focusing on Tajikistan Deqa does research, analysis, literature reviews, presentations, and field-based data collection. She is also currently working on a $30 million project to grow Tajikistan’s private sector through horticultural tourism, a concept which she and her colleagues discussed with the group.
Students gathered in the hotel lobby to meet with Jon Rose ’95, who is Lead Economist at Inter-American Development Bank.
The first stop on Thursday was the Arms Control Association (ACA), a think-tank which works to prevent the proliferation and production of nuclear weapons, hoping to eventually eliminate the international security threats that nuclear weapons pose. Greg Thielmann ’72 hosted the group, sharing his insights on the ACA and world developments regarding nuclear de-escalation. Thielmann explained that the main goal of the ACA is to educate and inform, not to advocate. To that end, the Association tries to ensure bipartisan involvement in the issues of arms control and is involved in conversations with many members of Congress. Thielmann also gave a brief overview of the history of arms control and the various international accords on the issue, such as the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty and the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. Moreover, he cited recent developments such as American withdrawal from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and the termination of the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty as step away from the goal of securing a more peaceful world.
Thursday’s last visit took the group to the National Portrait Gallery, a Smithsonian Institution that seeks to paint a history of the United States through its portrayals of individuals who have shaped the nation’s history, development, and culture. Founded by Congress in 1962, the gallery contains several collections comprising works from a diverse group of artists that focus on American icons from the realms of sports, politics, and art. There are currently 23,000 pieces in the gallery’s collections. On their tour of the gallery, students viewed and learned about the history, symbolism, context, and commissioning of several of the gallery’s most noteworthy presidential portraits, including one image with Grinnell alumnus Harry Hopkins 1912 in the background.
The group kicked off Friday’s events with a visit to the Pentagon hosted by Wilburn Fitzpatrick, a senior analyst and retired Army major who was had been stationed in Panama for several years and now working at the Pentagon, the Department of Defense’s main office building. One of the largest office buildings in the world, it is the workspace for 26,000 people, and it could house the U.S. Capitol building in any of its five corridors. The Pentagon has many museum-like exhibits throughout the halls dedicated to each branch of the military, exceptional US military figures, and past wars. The 9/11 memorial was one of the most notable, given that the Pentagon was directly attacked. The memorial included a small room with walls made from scraps of the plane that hit the Pentagon as well as a book with messages written from past visitors.
Friday’s next stop took students to the Washington Bureau of the New York Times hosted by Michael Tackett, a journalist for the New York Times who started his career working for the Chicago Tribune. The Times Washington Bureau focuses on political news coming from the White House, Congress, and various other political entities based in D.C. Within the past ten years, the office has grown from a staff of approximately 65 to 100. During the meeting, Tackett shared his philosophy on the role of journalism in society, particularly as it serves to uphold the honesty of public officials, and the challenges journalists face in the Trump era. Students also met with journalists, David Sanger and Mark Landler, who discussed differences they have noticed between the Obama administration and the Trump administration in their approaches to foreign policy.
The tour presented many opportunities for the participants to meet with alumni. The final tour event — a “back-to-the-classroom” gathering — brought the students together with a group of D.C.-based alumni from a variety of class years for dinner, networking, and a discussion about the current state of democracy. Students enjoyed listening to alumni share their experiences at Grinnell and describe the paths they took in life after college.
It felt like spring in DC, and it was nice to be able to comfortably gather outside — the cherry blossoms, in bloom during our study tour, are definitely the star of the springtime show in DC.
