DC Trip Day 3 - Lobby Day

With an early wake up we were all walking out of the hotel fully loaded at 815. We walked down First St past Union Station to the Dirksen Senate office building where STAND's hq for the day was set up in the basement cafeteria. After dropping our bags, we walked across Capitol Hill to Rep. Keating's office in Cannon. 

Following last year's model, we developed a presentation where all 16 students have a part. We made our first pitch of the day to Gabrielle Gould, Keating's new foreign policy staffer. It went great, and we felt like we were really able to help her understand our issues, especially the Atrocities Prevention Board. 

After the meeting, Keating interns Rachel and Casey took us over to the Capitol for our tour. 

We had a nice tour with Sean though it was more crowded than usual. 

We took our annual photo with Sam Houston. 

After the tour, we walked over to the Hart Building for our meeting with Sen. Warren's senior staffer, Feras Sleiman - this is the third time we have met with him! The kids did a great job again, and Feras is very supportive 

of the cause, even knowing that August 4 was the fourth anniversary of the proposal to create the APB. 

Next we grabbed lunch in the Senate cafeteria which was excellent and reasonable. 

With some extra time we went to a lecture in the Supreme Court chamber (kudos to Grace for finding this online) 

and then over to the Library of Congress for a visit. 

We then went to our 4pm meeting in Sen. Markey's office where we met with senior foreign policy analyst Phil McGovern, who has a fascinating background of active military service in Afghanistam and Iraq and last year countering ISIS, and also service in the State Dept. He was also really impressed by the presentation, and he really knows what he's talking about - he worked on the presidential study directive that created the APB! 

This was a home run and a great way to complete our lobby day. We just had time to grab our bags and head to Union Station to catch a 520 train to BWI,

which gave us plenty of time to grab dinner before our 815 flight. This was one of our best trips ever! The kids did a phenomenal job - learning deeply about the issues, advocating forcefully for human rights, and representing Monomoy with class and style. Awesome job!