By John Garvey, President
CatholicU, Fall 2018

In October, I was invited to a Friday afternoon reception at the Embassy of Ireland on Massachusetts Avenue. A group of our alumni, who in 1983 were the first American students to intern in the Irish Parliament, planned a 35th reunion in Washington, D.C., complete with a reception at the embassy. You can read about it on page 45. I was happy to be invited.

The opportunity to visit an embassy is one of the many perks of Catholic University’s Washington, D.C., location, and it happens often. Field trips to embassies are standard in several of our courses, including Washington 101. 

As the magazine editors planned their feature stories for this issue, they realized they had a theme. Each one of the stories speaks to our location in the nation’s capital. 

In the cover story you’ll read about an alumnus who is passionate about using the arts to unite our country and to honor those who serve in our military and their families. Michael Colbert, B.A. 1991, is the executive producer of the National Memorial Day Concert and A Capitol Fourth. These national concerts are broadcast live each year on PBS from the west lawn of the U.S. Capitol. 

Our students, faculty, and alumni are active participants in Washington, D.C.’s thriving music, drama, and art scene. We hold the distinction of having the only school of music in the city and just last summer we strengthened our arts education by establishing the Benjamin T. Rome School of Music, Drama, and Art as part of the University-wide Academic Renewal (see page 9).

Another story features two alumni, architect Tom Striegel and engineer Mike Geraghty, who were in charge of design and construction of D.C.’s newest museum, the National Law Enforcement Museum (see page 28). In the article, Mike mentions an internship he had with Clark Construction to work on the new baseball stadium, Nationals Park. This city is full of internship and job opportunities for our architects and engineers.  

In fact, students in every field find opportunities to suit their interests. As you might imagine, we have plenty of them interning on Capitol Hill, but we have just as many at places like the Smithsonian, the Library of Congress, NASA, the FDA, NIH, the Kennedy Center, and Children’s Hospital.

In “Working Miracles in Ward 8,” you’ll read about graduate social work students engaged in a special internship program that takes them into the heart of underserved neighborhoods in D.C., empowering residents to better their lives (page 34). 

Students who choose Catholic University know that Washington, D.C., has a lot to offer them. What amazes me is how much our University — our students, faculty, and alumni — has to offer the city.