A brief summary
of what happened yesterday. Yesterday we arrived to Washington D.C. and from
the moment I arrived I was in shock with how the city looks. You always see
pictures of the monuments and buildings look but to see them in person shocked
me. The Lincoln memorial had to be my favorite of the ones we visited. I am
being a little biased because I do share my name with President Lincoln.
Putting that to the side tough, the size of the whole memorial really gave me
some perspective on how important President Lincoln is too our nation.
First official
day of HACU was very interesting. All the speakers demonstrated a lot of
passion towards the awareness of higher education with not just Hispanics but
every minority group. During the 1:45-3:00 p.m. session all the panelists
showed a lot of pride in their work when it comes to student debt and how we approach this issue and gave different approaches on dealing with the issue. On out last
meeting for the day we heard Deborah Koolbeck who works with the American
Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE). She spoke to us about
student advocacy and also about what we should expect when we meet with members
of congress and the senate. One expectation is we might not actually get to
meet with the senator or member of congress; odds are we are going to be
talking to a staff member. She went on to tell us how we should approach the
staff member and gave us tips that will make the meetings successful. Two tips
she told us and I feel is very important is that a Thank You goes along way and
to have fun.
In conclusion
today was very informative day. It’s almost what I expected the day would be
like and the time was long but it went by very quickly. Hopefully tomorrow we can
meet our members of congress and senator who represent us. If not, I will not
be disappointed. Just knowing that I am going to Capitol Hill is enough for me.
