Georgetown University: School of Foreign Service in Qatar

This spring twelve SFS-Qatar freshman traveled to Georgetown’s main campus, as part of the annual DC Spring Break Trip. The weeklong trip has been a tradition at SFS-Qatar, providing our students the opportunity to meet their main campus counterparts and to experience main campus Georgetown traditions. The trip began with a visit to the Staples Center to watch the Georgetown men’s basketball team play Louisville for the Big East regular season title. Dressed in school colors and blue face paint, the students helped to cheer the Hoyas to victory.

The group spent the next couple of days touring the museums and monuments of Washington DC, including a night tour of the Mall and a group visit to the Holocaust Museum. In between tourist visits, the students met with prominent Washington policymakers, enjoying a private meeting with Congressman Christopher Shays and a question and answer session at the Pentagon with Brigadier General Michelle Johnson. Several officials at the Pentagon joined in to help field student questions. The military personnel in the room during the briefing were genuinely interested in what the students had to say and vice versa. “It was a remarkable opportunity to meet with key decision-makers. We got to go to a place that few people get to visit or see” reflected Nermana Babi.

SFS-Qatar students also took time to meet with main campus student leaders from the student government; the HOPE Club, a community-service organization; Mask and Bauble, Georgetown’s theatre troupe; HOYA Blue; and the student newspaper. The discussions led to new ideas about how to bridge the distance between the two campuses, including calls for more joint projects and service trips, and set times for informal teleconferencing.

Perhaps the highlight of the week was a joint community service activity with the main campus community service organization, the Hoya Outreach Programs and Education (H.O.P.E.). HOPE organized an evening program, in which students put together and distributed bagged dinners to homeless people in Dupont Circle. Maryam Rowhani described the experience as her favorite part of the trip. After handing out meals, students spent the better part of an hour sharing stories with people living in the Circle or at nearby shelters. “Handing out meals was an important component of the activity but just as meaningful were the conversations that followed,” remarked chaperone Benjamin Zulauf.