D.C. Grinnell alumni enjoy interacting with students during Rosenfield tour
April 12, 2023 — At 3:45 a.m. on March 20, a group of Grinnell students drowsily gathered at the Joe Rosenfield ’25 Center (JRC) to head to the Des Moines airport. A building named for Rosenfield was a fitting spot from which to embark upon this adventure since these 16 students were participating in the Rosenfield Program’s Public Affairs, International Relations, and Human Rights Study Tour.
They were joined by political science professors Barb Trish and Wayne Moyer as well as Maureen Fitzgibbon from the Center for Careers, Life and Service (CLS).
“We typically have a narrower focus for the tour,” explains Trish, director of the Rosenfield Program. “However, because of the global pandemic, it has been a while since we’ve done this trip, so we wanted to broaden the scope to engage more people.”
The first stop on the Rosenfield tour was a visit with Jay Dick ’93, senior director of state and local government affairs at Americans for the Arts.
Just two hours after their arrival to D.C., the group began their experience at the office of Jay Dick ’93, senior director of state and local government affairs at Americans for the Arts.
“I ensured there was plenty of coffee available,” Dick says. He marveled at how engaged the group was despite their early wake-up call. A highlight of this visit came when Dick explained the myriad ways the arts impact lives well beyond what he calls those “SOBs” (symphonies, operas, and ballets). He presented his organization’s Arts+Impact Social Explorer, which lists 26 different arts and topics to allow participants to better grasp the vast scope of the arts.
This week-long spring break experience was a joint effort with the CLS Government, Law, and Policy Career Community, which Fitzgibbon directs. Having Moyer on the tour was also a big draw for the students.
“It was in many ways a celebration of Moyer,” Trish says. “We wanted to bring students together who had studied with him. He’s also quite the connector. He got us into the Pentagon, where we met with Pete Biesada ’84 in the Office of the Secretary of the Navy.”
Tour participants mirrored the diversity of the Grinnell student body. “We had a range of majors including political science, GWSS [Gender, Women’s, and Sexuality Studies], foreign language, computer science, and statistics,” Trish says. “There were international and domestic students including someone from Iowa, and students who represented different class years.”
Saketan Anand ’21, associate analyst at NERA Economic Consulting, emphasized the importance of critical thinking and strong writing skills in his talk with students.
A former Rosenfield tour participant, Saketan Anand ’21 was honored to be on the other side this time hosting students at the firm where he works, NERA Economic Consulting.
“In 2019, I had just declared my Spanish major and was looking at economics also. Being from India, I didn’t have obvious places to go during breaks,” Anand explains. “The Rosenfield Program sounded cool, but I didn’t fully grasp the scale of it until taking part and meeting so many alumni. Grinnell empowers you to believe in an ideal version of the world. It was interesting to get the perspective of people who had attended Grinnell and now were navigating the real world.”
Anand wanted the tour participants to better understand the type of consulting they do at NERA and why a liberal arts education is in many ways a perfect fit. Joined by another liberal arts alum and colleague, they emphasized the importance of critical thinking and strong writing skills that are necessary in this work along with the analytical, data-oriented side.
“It was fun to interact with Grinnell students,” Anand says. “As a recent graduate, I was surprised how quickly I had forgotten how curious they are.”
At an evening reception at the home of Grinnell Trustee Sheryl Walter ’78, the students were able to have time for deeper connections with the alumni involved.
Toby Cain ’12, chief of staff for the Risk Management Agency, shows students around the U.S. Department of Agriculture offices.
Toby Cain ’12 attended the reception ahead of hosting the students the following day at the USDA where she is chief of staff for the Risk Management Agency. Upon arrival at Walter’s home, Cain encountered a group of students talking to Dick.
He was describing what it was like to be a lobbyist on the Hill. “Folks started to gather around this group, and I joined too,” Cain recalls. “I told them about my work with congressional members and committees and how ideas get moved through government.”
Soon Cain turned the focus to the students asking about their interests. “It became a very earnest circle,” she says. “They spoke of their passions and what brings them the most joy. We heard about photography, financial literacy, language learning, working with food security for children, and other issues around poverty. These students have big social justice goals.”
Cain appreciated connecting with the group ahead of their time with her colleagues. They met in undersecretary Robert Bonnie’s office where Cain gave them an overview of Farm Production and Conservation.
“I brought my fellow appointees to speak to the students,” she says. “They are a diverse group of individuals including a Black woman from Mississippi, a Japanese American from South Dakota, and a member of the Cheyenne River Sioux tribe. It was important for me to show that there is an enormous diversity of backgrounds and interests from environmental to civil rights. No matter your passion, there is room for you at the federal government in one of the departments. These individuals retain a lot of passion for their work, which was important for me to emphasize to the Grinnell students.”
Wayne Moyer, political science and policy studies professor, takes a photo with Andrew Jopeck ’22 at the Grinnell-in-Washington D.C. Alumni & Students Reception.
Other offices that students visited on the tour were United States Institute of Peace where they met Ambassador (and Grinnell College Trustee) George Moose ’66; the Arms Control Association with Senior Fellow Greg Thielmann ’72; and the Center for American Progress with Policy Analyst Allie Pearce ’20. The tour also included time with Max Ernst (husband of Emma Lange ’16), deputy chief of staff/legislative director in Congresswoman Katie Porter’s office; Kate Goddard ’91, evaluator in the U.S. Department of State; and Silvia Foster-Frau ’15, multiculturism reporter at The Washington Post.
In addition, about 50 alums took part in a Grinnell-in-Washington D.C. Alumni & Students Reception on March 20 at P.J. Clarke’s. The event included plenty of time for networking and a brief program featuring Moyer.
“Every single alum on the itinerary was the highlight of at least one of the students, and each experience brought with it special connections,” Trish says.
— by Melanie Drake ’92