Becky Lee, a D.C. lawyer and the founder of a domestic violence nonprofit called Becky's Fund, spoke to the Law and Criminal Justice (LCJ) program about the fight against domestic violence. Ms. Lee became interested in domestic violence after sitting in a college lecture taught by a criminal attorney who specialized in the acquittal of battered women imprisoned for killing their abusers in self defense.

As part of the Public Policy Dialogues on Capitol Hill (PPDCH) component of the TWC internship program, Canadian students attended an exclusive panel at the Canadian Embassy. Traditionally, PPDCH programming is reserved for students in the U.S. to visit with their senators or representatives. Since this opportunity isn't available to international students, TWC scheduled a special visit for Canadian students at the Embassy of Canada.

47 students traveled to Richmond, Virginia to support veterans competing in the 32nd National Veterans Wheelchair Games. They are all participating in the Veterans Civic Engagement Project, led by Ann Reynolds.

Supporting Veterans at Wheelchair Games

Over 600 paralyzed veterans came from all over the country to compete in 17 different games including:

The Homelessness Civic Engagement Project welcomed the National Coalition for the Homeless (NCH) to TWC's Residential Academic Facility on July 9th. NCH discussed attacks on the homeless throughout the United States and encouraged students to support H.R. 3528, also known as the Hate Crimes Statistics Act, which would include attacks against the homeless as a hate crime.

TWC hosted their second SMLS of the summer semester with Brian Lamb, the founder, chairman and CEO of C-SPAN. Traditionally, students have been known to ask questions during these sessions but during the July 9th SMLS, the tables were turned when Mr. Lamb interviewed TWC students on topics such as:

Jessica Glazer, Associate Director of Career Programs & Education at John Hopkins Carey Business School, spoke to the Summer 2012 Professional Postgraduate Development Program (PPDP) on the topic of Positive Psychology and how the field can help both your career search and professional development. Positive Psychology is a very recent field discovered in 1998.

As part of the advocacy component of the Torture Abolition Civic Engagement Project, 40 TWC summer interns and 10 torture survivors spoke out against torture on Capitol Hill. The Torture Abolition Civic Engagement Project is organized by The Torture Abolition and Survivor Support Coalition (TASSC). TASSC is the only organization founded by and for torture survivors to end torture and empower survivors and their communities. Interns received extensive training by TASSC, which is also a long-time TWC internship host.

The Washington Center is pleased to announce that Cokie Roberts, political commentator for ABC News and National Public Radio, is confirmed to emcee The Washington Center’s Gala 2012: Celebrating 50,000 Alumni, on Monday, October 1, 2012, at the National Building Museum.

Dr. Chad Moutray, chief economist for the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), spoke to the Business and Global Trade Program at TWC's Residential Academic Facility. He provided an update on the economic status of the manufacturing industry and the high demand for skilled employees. He encouraged interested TWC students to look into high-skilled trade jobs, as well as careers in the fields of science, technology and math.

Michael Salmeri, a TWC summer intern and Florida Atlantic University student, was given a remarkable and unique opportunity. Due to his lobbying efforts to prevent the increase of student loan interest rates from 3.4 to 6.8 percent during a special Student Lobby day, Michael was invited to attend a hearing about the issue at the White House.