Stacy Buell was in the International Arts and Culture cohort in 2010-2011.
Life after WLP: I used WLP as a platform to jump off and dive into my current involvement in GWU and the DC community. I work for the university as a House Staff member, which is our version of an RA, where my position connected me to hundreds of students on campus. My sophomore year I worked on the video production team for the Hatchet, our student run newspaper, making upwards of 30 videos covering events on campus and around DC. I also am an active member of the College Democrats community, worked at the Learner Health and Wellness Center as a staff member, and am participating in an Alternative Break to New Orleans. Outside of my GWU involvement, I have interned in many places: on the Hill with former representative Jay Inslee (WA-01), with the Washington Bus as a graphics and blogging intern, on the corporate marketing team of WETA (DC’s local PBS station), with GWU’s SMPA’s Center for Innovative Media with Planet Forward and Face the Facts producing videos, and am currently at the PR firm Rational 360 representing clients such as GE and The Trust for the National Mall. I have received a scholarship from the Gridiron Foundation for my video work from the SMPA, but still think my greatest accomplishment was giving professor Mary Buckley a piggy back ride at our final symposium for WLP.
On WLP Academics: I still get excited every time I see Mary Buckley on campus, jump for joy excited. She inspired me to forge my own path and showed me that academics don’t have to be boring. WLP allowed me to explore topics I chose while still giving me a solid introduction to the academic standards of GWU. I learned to expand my scope of what academic can mean, and wrote one of my final papers on Women Comics, after which my paper was chosen for the Univeristy Writing Symposium to teach others what I learned. The Thursday symposiums of WLP introduced me to the world DC by taking me into the art community. We went to a small playhouse in Georgetown, to Arena Stage, to museums, to the ice skating rink in the National Sculpture Garden, and even to the Kennedy Center on multiple occasions. This was the exact type of academic experience I was looking for: a mix of interesting subjects, challenging assignments, and cultural experiences.
On WLP Community: My hallway was everything for me Freshman year. My best friends lived right across the hall, were in all my classes, and went on Sunday adventures with me to every single Smithsonian museum. I was afraid of living on the Vern, but the community we built transcended out small campus and I was proud to call Somers Hall my home. I am still very close with all the WLP girls, and many of us still live together. These are girls that will have your back and help you though the best and craziest year of your life: freshman year of college.
A Piece of Advice: Join the WLP cohort that you think you will have the most fun in. I chose the arts and culture cohort over the political cohort despite my politically focused major. It did it for me, not for my future and not for the connections, but because I wanted to be immersed in the creative culture of DC- and boy was it the right decision.