Written by: Angie Lopez Ramirez, Caminos al Futuro 2024
Celebrating Independence Day in Washington, D.C. has been one of the highlights of my Caminos experience as the first week closes. Watching the fireworks surrounded by fresh faces made the holiday such an exciting experience for me in an unfamiliar city.
However, despite the amazing celebrations, learning does not stop! Waking up early the next morning, my classmates, who I can now call my friends, and I all took the Vex shuttle to meet for breakfast at Shenkman Hall. We spent the early morning chatting prior to attending our first class with GW librarian Peter Cohn, who taught us how to use GW resources for our Community Action Projects. We spent the class researching and looking for sources as we began our projects.
We then attended our Changing the Narrative class, which helps us improve our writing skills, with Cisneros Associate Director Trey Johnston. The class started with an exercise where we talked about a random topic assigned to us for a minute straight. For some of us, this was easy! Topics ranged from arguing about Iceland being the best country to alligator wrestling to living like people in the Bee Movie. While this activity was fun to sit through, the point of it was to prove how people can take prompts differently, from personal stories to societal views. After class, we went to lunch in the Western Market and returned for a class with GW Associate Director of Admissions Federico Glitman. We spent the class pretending to be admissions officers, looking at applications, and deciding whether the applicant would be admitted or denied. Overall, the classes today were exciting!
Following dinner at Shenkman Hall, we attended an improv session as part of the pre-college programming. This was perfect timing because of our activity from earlier in the day! We started by splitting into small groups and doing exercises before going up on stage and improving one of the exercises we had learned. I had never laughed more in my life than improv night with my friends. These activities were super fun and I was able to make great memories through them!
Angie Lopez Ramirez is a 2024 Caminos al Future Scholar. Angie’s views are her own and not necessarily reflective of the Cisneros Institute.