Students participating in The Washington Center's Inauguration '17 seminar spent Martin Luther King Jr. Day volunteering with various community organizations around Washington D.C. Some students helped clean up invasive plants and trash from Soapstone Creek with the National Park Service and Rock Creek Conservancy. The volunteer work provided an opportunity for students to get to know each other better and to give back to the community. It also demonstrated to the students that being an active citizen means more than just political involvement and includes helping improve the city through volunteer service projects. The day of volunteering enhanced the students' experience and understanding of Washington D.C. beyond the academic seminar.

1. See published article at:
http://inauguration.twc.edu/out-of-the-classroom-and-into-the-community/
By Caroline Guy, TWC Media Intern from Baldwin Wallace University
Don’t let the title “academic seminar” fool you. Students are getting more than just a
traditional education from The Washington Center’s Inauguration ‘17 seminar.
On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, students left The Washington Center’s Residential
Facility behind and ventured off into several parts of Washington D.C. to serve the
community they’ve called home for the past week. Students were able to choose from
different organizations; some worked with City Year and heard from the mayor; some
students made sandwiches for the homeless; and others went out to work with different
conservancies.
One group of students worked with the National Park Service and Rock Creek
Conservancy to clean up Soapstone Creek.
This creek is part of the stream system that feeds into Rock Creek. It’s at the highest
point in D.C. and right behind a high school, making it a small but crucial piece of land
to conserve. Rock Creek Conservancy has been working on Soapstone Creek for about
three years, trying to remove invasive and non-native species that blanket and kill trees
or other wildlife.
Students had a role cleaning up the creek by picking up trash; others raked up the
invasive plants; and still others dug trenches to plant wildflowers.
BriAnna McCorkle from Abilene Christian University was one person who signed up in
part so she could meet different students from the TWC seminar and from around the
nation’s capital.
When she signed up, she noticed that there was a smaller group of students going,
which provided her an opportunity to get to know more people from other schools.
Other people signed up to go to Rock Creek because they had experience with this kind
of work. Allison Edwards from Arkansas Tech University does similar work picking up
trash in Arkansas.
When asked why she continues to do this kind of volunteer work, she explained, “This is
a way for us to preserve the city for generations to come so everyone can enjoy it.”
Faculty member Andrew Green from Central College also signed up because he has
previous experience.
“I’ve done invasive species work for our service day at our college and I like to be
outside to do these types of projects,” he said. “So it seemed like a good choice for me.”

2. Why are students who came to an academic seminar to learn about how to elevate
political discourse helping a city none of them calls home?
“We didn’t just come here to learn. It’s to also take what you learn and give it back to the
community because not everyone had the opportunity to come here,” Edwards said. “So
being able to just come here and learn in D.C. and give back by helping pick up trash,
even though it doesn’t seem like that big of a deal, it is.”
Green believes that these service projects showed students that being an active citizen
is not just showing up to party meetings and getting involved with local politics or
newspapers, like they’ve heard from speakers for the last week. It’s about being
involved in every aspect of the community.
“It’s teaching students that part of our responsibility as citizens is to help the community
and do good work in the community and this gives us all an opportunity to do that,” he
said.
Whatever the reason students signed up for their various service projects, it’s is clear
that it is providing a different type of education and rounding out their experience.
Students headed into their second week of academics with a better understanding of
the city they are in. This day spent in the cold or in schools or with small organizations
was beneficial and helped students take the term “active citizen” to a whole new level.