Ohio Fellows recently took a trip to the nation’s capital where they learned about leadership on a national level.
Tom Roberts, the Ohio Fellows Advisor who also headed up the trip, said that students were able to learn about the issues being discussed in Washington D.C. The students mainly focused on the issue of hunger and how it is being addressed in D.C.
“I think it gives students the opportunity to see first hand how our U.S. government works… This lets them see how this operates at the national level. And to be able to do a service project in the nation’s capital but also to be a part of something now which I think is going to be on the ground floor of helping to address the issue of hunger in our community and across the country,” he said.
Roberts said they have been going to Washington D.C. for a decade and they have formed several relationships that have helped them expand their learning experience.
The D.C. trip can give students an appreciation for how the country is run, and, according to Roberts, they can learn leadership skills from those who are doing it at a national level.
“The program is to help students understand servant leadership. It begins with the natural feeling that you want to serve and other’s needs become your highest priority. So it’s important for our students to see the big picture. You can see not only where our national figures are making decisions, but also policies…. I think by looking at it from the big picture, I think you get to see what our country is faced with,” he said.
According to Roberts, students can gain an appreciation for their country and both the history and the current issues that surround it by visiting D.C.
“We did the Holocaust Museum and that was very disturbing to a lot of students to see what was going back then but that was part of the message of the Holocaust Museum. Are we being as vigilant today on the same kinds of things? They had an exhibit of Syria, so I think that one kind of said to the students that we always have to be vigilant towards our freedoms going on around us,” Roberts said.
Students were also able to take a rare look inside the Supreme Court.
Roberts hopes to take the issue of hunger and have the Ohio Fellows work on that project on campus.
“That is our goal, to take the lead on this campus and we want to able to work with them to take the lead on this project,” he said.
Students stayed in dorm rooms at George Washington University. The Ohio Fellows students stayed for 5 days in Washington D.C.
Laina Yost
Associate Editor