Instead of getting tan on Caribbean beaches during spring break, a group of MBA students across the country convened in Washington DC in March to learn more about the intersection of business and government from key stakeholders and policy leaders - Congressmen, lobbyists, federal agents, corporate public policy officers, journalists, lawyers, etc.
A group of Indiana students from IU Kelley and Purdue Krannert got to hear from Congressman Jim Baird, an Indiana farmer with a PhD. He let us ask him about issues that are important to us. My classmate Hina (center) asked him a lot of about policy regarding wifi access and infrastructure in rural Indiana.
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| Congressman Jim Baird from Indiana District 4, Photo Credit: Washington Campus |
One of the things I really appreciated about Washington Campus was the non-partisan design in our speaker list and the level of intellectual discussion. Oftentimes, when we hear about issues in the news, the news is written in way that incentivizes clicking/sharing, which fuels online news sources' revenue models. In this program, we heard long intellectual presentations which addressed layers of complexity surrounding any given hot topic.
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| Lobbyist Gregg Rothschild, Photo Credit: Washington Campus |
Congressman Trey Hollingsworth represents the district of Indiana that encompasses Indiana University Bloomington. One of the most interesting things that we discussed with his Chief of Staff is that oftentimes interest groups may not actually accurately represent the interests of the groups they serve. A certain interest group claimed that Indiana farmers was against a certain issue, but when Representative Hollingsworth actually called active voting farmers in his district about the issue, nine out of ten of those farmers was actually for that issue.
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| Meeting with the Chief of Staff of Congressman Trey Hollingsworth |
I also really enjoyed meeting people from around the world who are doing their MBA in the US. It was fun to meet a students who are in completely different functions and industries from schools across the country. The varied experiences of the students there made the Q&A sessions very interesting.
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| Networking in the Decatur House, Photo Credit: Washington Campus |
One of the main highlights of the trip was going inside the Capitol Building. We got to go sit on the House floor and do a Q&A session with retired Congressmen Al Wynn and Martin Frost. Minority Whip Steve Scalese also happened to be in there at the same time with a group of middle schoolers from New Orleans. He threw footballs at all the people that asked a question.
Washington Post National Political Correspondent James Hohmann has so many interesting stories regarding media and politics. He came to a networking session, got to a podium on one side of the room, and talked for an hour - it was absolutely riveting.
Apart from the day we visited Capitol hill, we sat in a conference room for 8 hours a day. They tried to mix it up with networking sessions at the end of two of the days. We had a final exam on the last day, which wasn't too difficult.
Though we spent an entire week in DC, we only scratched the surface to exploring the complexity of government, business, and the pursuit of prosperity. Overall, I really enjoyed it.
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| Bi-Partisan Photo with Boilermakers and Hoosiers, Photo Credit: Washington Campus |
Exploring DC
This is my 6th trip to DC, but there's always more to explore. I went to a newly opened store called Paris Bleu. It's a boutique that sells imports from France, and I bought a cashmere beret. DC has a Chinatown, and it's not very authentic.
The Theater in Ford's Theatre wasn't open due to renovations but it was cool to see the museum and exhibits on Lincoln below the theater.
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