While most Miami University students pass Bell Tower and King Library on their walk to class, this semester 13 Miami students are getting a change of scenery-by studying and interning in Washington D.C.
Inside Washington initially began as a summer program, and although it was designed for journalism, political science and communication majors, was open to all students. Due to the success of the summer program, the university decided to pilot a semester-long program.
Students in the summer program, which was eight weeks long but will extend to nine weeks this summer, spend the first three weeks in a course that involves meeting with lawmakers, lobbyists and media figures, among others. For the remaining weeks students are then placed in an internship, which generally matches up with their major or area of interest.
It was due to the success of the summer program that the semester-long pilot program was born.
While students still spend the initial five weeks in a course, one benefit of the semester-long program is that it allows students to be in their internship for 10 weeks. The semester program also allows time for the students to design a research project of their choice and learn more about the different groups of people within Washington.
"(The research project) gave the students an opportunity to take a personal interest and dive in and do research and I think they found that pretty exciting," said Cheryl Gibbs, clinical faculty within the journalism program. Gibbs was present in D.C. as the faculty member responsible for the course in the initial weeks of the program.
Howard Kleiman, a Miami communication professor and founder of the Inside Washington program, noted the benefits of students being able to be in D.C. for a semester.
"Personal growth may be the most long-lasting benefit of participating in the program," Kleiman said. "Students come back just so confident in their ability to do new situations. You walk away having done that, feeling like you can virtually handle any situation."
Matt Hebebrand, junior political science major and Italian minor currently on the Inside Washington semester pilot program, thinks the program has helped him apply what he has learned at Miami to the real world. He is interning with Representative John Boehner (R-Ohio), who is the member for the 8th District of Ohio-which includes Oxford.
In only the first week of his internship, Hebebrand has been doing constitute mail work and running errands when necessary, and soon is going to start doing giving tours of the Capitol for Boehner's constitutes.
"I think it puts everything into perspective," he said. "Everything you have learned in political science, journalism, communications classes-you actually see how it gets done."
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A semester in Washington costs the same tuition as Miami, depending on in state or out of state.
But the cost of living in Washington is more expensive.
"It has no impact on tuition, the impact is on housing and personal expenses," Kleiman said.
The students stay at the Boston University Washington Center, where the cost is approximately $4,000 a semester.
"Clearly any program that asks students to pick up a significant expense, any program that takes you away from Oxford can be a hardship for students," Kleiman said.
According to Kleiman, the high additional costs have kept students who wanted to go from being able.
"It saddens us to think they are probably great students who didn't get to go," Kleiman said.
At the end of the semester the program will be evaluated and the decision to make a commitment to the program will be discussed by the administration.
Kleiman said that Provost Jeffery Herbst gave the administration his support to try the semester program and see the costs, evaluate the program and decide how to go forward. The semester program now has 13 students, while the summer is 25. Kleiman hopes that the semester program could get that strong.
"It would be ideal if we had both summer and semester program, but that is to be determined," Kleiman said.
If the university does decide to support a permanent semester program it would probably not begin until spring 2009, according to Kleiman.
A summer workshop, like the Inside Washington program, provides less of a challenge in terms of funding, as the summer course virtually pays for itself by tuition cost of enrolling in the course. This model does not apply to a semester program, according to Kleiman.
Gibbs believes that the semester program may be more economical for some students than the summer program. She said that the semester program is more affordable because students have already budgeted for tuition and housing for the semester where they may not have for the summer. There is an additional amount that covers the higher cost of living in Washington but it is still much less than if they paid for the extra tuition and housing in the summer.
"I believe it makes it possible for us to have a group of students that is more diverse economically," Gibbs said.
One problem a semester program poses is that Miami has to hire a faculty to replace whoever leads the program and cover the cost of keeping them in Washington D.C. for a semester. These costs require identifiable money that the summer program does not.
Another concern with the summer program is making sure housing is available in Boston University's Washington Center. According to Kleiman, if there is enough demand during the school year from their students, Boston University can say they cannot accommodate Miami students.
Hebebrand thinks there are many benefits to a semester program.
"I really want it to be kept going because I really think it is an important program," Hebebrand said. "There are a lot of Miami alum here and the summer program has been so highly regarded by everyone here. I think it would do the university good to keep it a semester-long program."
Other students think the program has helped them learn about journalism, political science and communication by fully experiencing those fields in practice.
"I think you need to be completely immersed in what Washington has to offer," said Emily Driscoll, senior journalism and French major, currently on the Inside Washington semester pilot program.
Current students in the program also think that there is no classroom experience that can compare it with what they have experienced.
"First-hand learning, making mistakes and messing up is how you are going to learn to do things," Driscoll said.
No matter how the pilot program goes, Kleiman assures students that the summer program will not go away.
"The summer program is our bedrock program and we know for a lot of students it will be program of choice if they want to go," Kleiman said.
Those interested in the summer program can go to the Inside Washington Web site www.units.muohio.edu/insidewashington/. Applications will be accepted for the summer program through Nov. 2.
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