Written by: Paulo Rivera, Caminos al Futuro 2023
Every day, without fail, our group coordinates a specific time to meet and eat breakfast. Whether we say “7:30am?”, or someone says, “I’ll go at 7:45am”, we get our meal at Pelham Commons, the GW Deli, or (my favorite) Shenkman Dining Hall. Once most of our group eats and the sleepier members arrive, we head to our first activity of the day in Monroe Hall.
This is our last lecture with Professor Trey, and we definitely end our time with him on a high note. He gives us a great lesson on Brazilian Portuguese, which he enjoys teaching and we enjoy struggling to catch up on. After a 5-minute break to refresh our minds, it is time for our next lecture!
This one is led by Dr. Natalie Milman, a professor of Education Technology at GW, who teaches us about Artificial Intelligence and Ethics. Dr. Milman provides us with in-depth information about anything technologically related. Over the course of the entire Caminos program, I have been very impressed by the range of fields of study we have been exposed to. By 12:30pm, we are hungry again, and we speed off to Shenkman for lunch.
Consisting of beans, rice, tortillas, and plantains, the meal goes by quickly, and we soon get to work on our Community Action Projects at Gelman Library. We find our niche in the library, a conference room on the third floor that we have claimed as our own. Two hours, one Spotify playlist, and many Google slides later, we return to Monroe Hall for our third session of the day. This time, we speak to GW interviewers, including three regional officers of the Pacific Northeast, New Jersey, and Texas! We practice many common interview questions and have plenty of practice being in the hot seat.
It did not take long, though, and we were soon back out on the streets, heading for dinner. Most of us head to &Pizza (pronounced “And Pizza”), a classic option that was tried and true. Between eating the pizza with the mosquitos on the patio, the GW Vex heading back to Mount Vernon, or in the library, we were back by 8:00pm.
There could be more said about Cris on the drums, our tennis session, or even Ethan’s amazing grilled cheese sandwiches. We have been able to do so much today, and so much over the last three weeks that will have been left unsaid. So many great memories have been made, and I hope that many of those have been able to be shared with this blog. Thank you.
Paulo Rivera is a Caminos al Futuro 2023 scholar. Paulo’s views are his own and not necessarily reflective of the Cisneros Institute.