Washington Leadership Program begins with bang, controversy

IU’s Washington Leadership Program began its fall semester Wednesday a bit
unexpectedly.

Moving into new homes for their fall internships, IU students watched as the Discovery Channel hostage crisis unfolded in Silver Spring, Md.

“It was an intense way to start the internship,” junior Jonathan Todd said. “The cops had blocked off the street where we were and also the metro across the street.”

Todd and the other IU students in the program spent their first week in Washington answering concerned phone calls from parents, dodging cop cars and blocked off streets and watching news helicopters circle above their apartment balconies.

“We turned on CNN, and we saw our apartment building in the background,” Todd said.
The students will be in Washington, D.C. all semester. The program pairs IU students with individual internships around the district that focus on the federal government and politics.

Students also study with School of Public Affairs faculty members and Washington government policy makers.

— Molly Johnson