Ms. Walters goes to (the other) Washington

Each March,  the professional organization that I am a part of NAFSA, hosts an Advocacy day in Washington DC. People involved in International Student Services and Education Abroad descend upon DC and storm their local representatives with information on important bills and key legislature that affects our students.

This year, I had the opportunity to attend, which I had been wanting to do for awhile. Our alumni program sends two students to Advocacy Day and thanks to my two stellar alum and their award-winning essay writing skills, I was able to accompany them.

I took a red eye flight in, so I had a majority of the day to catch up on work and fit in a little sightseeing. It's been a few years since I had been in DC, so I did a bit of a walk around the monuments and popped into a museum or two. I just love this town. I really feel like if I had gotten to know it better, I would have moved there when I was in my 20s. There is so much ambition in the town and there always seems to be something going on. My alum and I met up for dinner and looked around Georgetown...we even happened upon the stairs used in the Exorcist! 

Our hotel was in Embassy Row, so we also checked out all of the Embassies.

I'm glad I had a bit of downtime before the work began. the first day, we were trained on how to work in DC and given tips for our meetings with staff members. It was a little overwhelming at first, but as the day went on, we all got more comfortable.  The two major bills that we advocated for were centered around Immigration Reform/Educational Visa Caps and The Freedom to Travel to Cuba Act. While Immigration was a bit of a contested topic (shocking), the restrictions on travel to Cuba were, across the board, widely supported. Both parties seem to be very much in favor of opening the doors to Cuba for tourism and removing the current restrictions, though there are a few revisions that will need to be made beforehand. It's going to be kind of cool to watch and see where this bill goes...and hopefully when it gets passed. I'll know I've played a role in it.

When we first stepped on the hill, I was definitely nervous. We worked in groups though, so thankfully no one had to go at it alone.  I worked with the team from CA since that is where I vote. There were five awesome ladies from CA and I had a great time getting to work with them! We had about three or four meetings that day. One had to get cancelled last minute because staffers got called to the floor.

I learned so much from the day. It felt good to have a voice in politics. I'd do it gain for sure.