The Political Communication program is a joint program between the School of Communication and the School of Public Affairs. And it really allows us to leverage the strengths and advantages of both schools. The Campaign Management institute and the Public Advocacy Institute are examples of classes, where we bring in experts who are practitioners in their field. We mimic an actual campaign. And so students are really learning skills, but doing that in a very applied and relevant way. We have a campaign class, where we take students in presidential years to New Hampshire and to South Carolina, to cover the primary as political journalists. The capstone experience is really the culmination of the program for students. It's an open ended opportunity for students to develop a significant body of work that then they can use as part of their portfolio when they're entering into the professional world. I wanted to come to DC because I knew they offered a lot of specialization, specifically with politics and campaign work. And I felt like the Political Communication program did a really good job of giving their students the practical experience to go out into the campaigns world, and into politics, and use their skills, and be able to translate them to whatever they do. The networking opportunities in the program-- I think one of the greatest strengths of the program. Our alumni are very loyal. And they come back, and they guest lecturer, and they offered to help students with their job opportunities, and to give them advice. One of the proudest aspects of the program as a program director is what our students go on to do. We have students who are working on Senate campaigns, congressional gubernatorial campaigns, working on Capitol Hill, working for advocacy organizations, as communication directors, press secretaries. We really love to keep track of our students and their amazing accomplishments.
