These Students Are Learning on ‘The Hill’—But Not in Ithaca

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For nearly a half century, the Cornell in Washington program has offered immersive, life-changing lessons in the nation’s capital

By Joe Wilensky

Aspiring physician RJ Ho ’27 is fascinated by the machinations of healthcare policy—and in spring 2026, he got a chance to see how those strategies are hashed out, proposed, and enacted in the nation’s capital.

“I’m interested helping people and diagnosing what’s wrong with an individual human being,” says Ho, a biology major in Arts & Sciences, “but I also think that a physician should know the broader scope and understand the system in which they practice.”

Ho interned on the legislative team of New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, which gave him an up-close view of some inner workings of policymaking.

“There’s a lot going on—tons of meetings, briefings, hearings, answering constituent calls and emails, even giving tours,” says Ho, chatting with Cornellians in early May, during the final weeks of his internship. “We’re right at the center of the bureaucratic system.”

We’re right at the center of the bureaucratic system.

RJ Ho ’27

For Ho, the opportunity came via the Cornell in Washington (CIW) program.

For nearly half a century, the program has sent several dozen students—not only the expected government and history majors, but from across the University—to D.C. for a semester, housing and teaching them in a four-story, Cornell-owned building in the Dupont Circle neighborhood.

CIW students take courses together, get to know the city, attend guest lectures, and intern at a federal agency or department, nonprofit, think tank, or other organization—including on Capitol Hill and at the White House, the D.C. Public Defenders office, the Library of Congress, the Federalist Society, the Council on Foreign Relations, and other notable venues.

“Studying public policy is even more important now than it has been—not only with what’s going on in the U.S., but the world,” says David Silbey ’90, CIW’s director of teaching and learning since 2023, “and students are really recognizing the critical nature of being involved.”

Since the program’s launch in 1980, some 4,400 Cornellians have taken part, Silbey says.

Alumni include former U.S. Rep. Hansen Clarke ’84; federal judge Alan Paez ’88; Leonard Leo ’87, JD ’89, chairman of the Federalist Society; Dr. Mandy Krauthamer Cohen ’00, former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; and media leaders like ESPN chairman James Pitaro ’91.

Others have gone on to serve as attorneys, counsel, and advisors to presidential administrations, elected officials, and Congressional committees, among other roles.

Studying public policy is even more important now than it has been—not only with what’s going on in the U.S., but the world, and students are really recognizing the critical nature of being involved.

David Silbey ’90, director of teaching and learning

The alums who’ve gone on to political office include U.S. Rep. Melanie Stansbury, MS ’07; now in her third term representing New Mexico’s 1st District, she participated in CIW while earning a master’s in sociology on the Hill.

The program’s public policy class, she says, “changed the course of my career, and helped transform my passion for serving my community and love of learning into a career in public service.”

The original iteration of CIW was conceived by legendary Cornell government professor Ted Lowi. Starting with six students in spring 1980, it grew to 25 participants the following year and quickly reached capacity, enrolling about 50 each term.

Faculty who taught in CIW’s early years include Big Red giants like Lowi, Walter LaFeber, and Joel Silbey—David Silbey’s father, who himself directed the program from 1992–98.

“For me, it always comes back to the students, and watching them have this semester experience where they really start to flourish, not just as people, but as professionals,” Silbey says. “They’re in offices doing internships, eager to figure out what’s going on, working hard.”

During her CIW semester, Sydney Lonker ’25, BS ’24, interned at the National Economic Council—an experience that, she says, taught her not only that she prefers economics to finance, but that she values public service.

“Learning about how the world works through government organizations affords you a completely different perspective on economic systems, how motivations are translated into policy, and how results are fed back into the system and interpreted,” says Lonker, now a junior international affairs fellow at the U.S. Treasury.

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Faculty who taught in CIW’s early years include Big Red giants like Ted Lowi, Walter LaFeber, and Joel Silbey—David Silbey’s father, who himself directed the program from 1992–98.

Classmate Jenna Alland ’25 describes CIW as a much smaller, more intimate version of studying on the Hill—with courses taught by professors from Ithaca as well as guest lecturers who “live, work, and breathe D.C. every day.”

A former government major who’s headed to law school in fall 2026, Alland spent two semesters at CIW, interning on Capitol Hill and at the Department of Agriculture.

She vividly recalls a class discussion on political polarization that was held the evening after U.S. Rep. Kevin McCarthy—amid fiery Congressional debates and the threat of a government shutdown—became the first Speaker of the House ever to be voted out of the position.

“Experiences like that,” she says, “made every day at CIW feel like living through history in real time.”

Experiences like that made every day at CIW feel like living through history in real time.

Jenna Alland ’25

(On a lighter note, Alland also remembers one fellow participant student serving as the Easter Bunny during his White House internship, noting, “We still refer to him as FBOTUS—First Bunny of the United States.”)

All CIW participants enroll in a core class that delves into the policy being made in the nation’s capital, takes students on field trips, and more.

In spring 2026, its guest speakers included Rep. Beth Van Duyne ’95 of Texas and Mick Mulvaney, who served as President Trump’s chief of staff in 2019–20.

Van Duyne, Silbey recalls, spoke candidly about the experience of having her 24th District repeatedly gerrymandered by the state legislature—meaning that in each of her three terms, she has represented a slightly different set of constituents.

Says Silbey: “It was a fascinating insight into her experience as a politician.”

While CIW was long housed in the School of Continuing Education, it moved to the then-new Brooks School of Public Policy in 2021.

Recently, Brooks added a major new element to CIW: D.C. Start, a fall semester option for first-year undergrads.

(The spring semester for other undergrads and grad students is now called D.C. Connect; CIW also offers a summer term for Cornell students as well as programs for high schoolers.)

All CIW participants enroll in a core class that which delves into the policy being made in the nation’s capital, takes students on field trips, and more.

Zach Montague ’13, a CIW alum who covers federal courts for the New York Times, taught a political journalism class to D.C. Start’s first cohort in fall 2025.

Montague’s presence, Silbey says, was a perfect example of the program’s real-time ethos—recalling that the reporter was once late to class because he’d been covering a nearby U.S. district court’s overturning of presidential executive orders on immigration.

“And then,” Silbey says, “he came right in and talked about it.”

Top: CIW students at the Supreme Court in fall 2019 (James Kegley; all other images provided, unless otherwise indicated).

Published May 15, 2026

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