Leadership Summit

Washington DC.

Monday: Get up super early (didn’t get enough sleep the night before) and head to the airport (THANKS JILL) There I met up with John, Paul, and Patricia Cornales (Exec in SAISD) I was fortunately able to sleep on the plane. Arrived at the hotel. John and I went to the Air and Space Museum. Met up with Colleen and Nick from City Year Columbus and walked around with them, a lot; then walked back to the hotel. Then walked with Paul to dinner; ate a delicious dinner at The Ebbot Grill. Walked back to the hotel and met with all the other corps members with Charlie Rose. Met my roommate for the trip; Caitlin Kelly from City Year Detroit. We had a lot of good talks at night, especially about the state of Detroit. Sleep.

Tuesday: Went to have coffee with Senator Cornyn and talked to a CUTE intern there. Then met with Michelle Chin from his office to convince them City Year is awesome and so the Serve America Act needs to be funded. Then we met up with the rest of City Year at Georgetown to have lunch and hear lots of speakers. Among them were Arne Duncan (Secretary of State), Michelle Rhee (Chancellor of DC Schools and an amazing woman), Joel Klein (Chancellor of NYC Schools), Michael Brown, The Feltonville Diplomas Now! Team and a few more. Then we went to Union Station (beautiful) and mingled with appetizers. Heard from Mrs. Colin Powell and saw 5 amazing City Year alumni awarded the Comcast Awards. Also saw an amazing corps member from LA win the Building Bridges (basically corps member of the year) Award. He reminded me of Jonathan Fletcher. The DC Senior Corps took all the CY CMs to Ben’s Chili Bowl. I got a chocolate milkshake. Talked to interesting people. Then they took us on a tour of the Washington Memorial, WWII Memorial and Lincoln Memorial, which are all beautiful at night. Then sleep.

Wednesday: Got up super early to have Breakfast with Congressman Gonzalez. Next we had a meeting with Moe Vela, Administrator for Biden. He was such a dynamic guy; very very nich. He talked to us for 2 hours!! Then a luncheon. Then a meeting with 2 more representatives. Airport, delayed plane. Talked to Allison; she works in development with World Wildlife Fund. That was an amazing conversation. I learned a lot about the organization. But we missed our flight in Chicago. Took forever getting out of the airport. Drove around Chicago (now I want to live there more than ever!) and finally, sleep.

Thursday: Woke up early, got on plane, tried to sleep… got to San Antonio. Sleep.

That was the outline for my amazing trip to Washington DC. But what I really got from the trip was a bigger better version of the awe I experienced when Charlie Rose came to City Year San Antonio for our ATA. It is amazing to see the impact of City Year on a national level and all the amazing people who support our efforts (see speaker list above). It shows me I have a lot to learn from City Year… maybe more than just my two corps years.