THE 2010 CLOSE UP WASHINGTON PROGRAM:
ANOTHER SEGMENT OF THE MOUNT CARMEL ADVANTAGE
Written by Victor Takacs
(Close Up Sponsor and Member of the MCA Faculty, Social Studies Department)
On Sunday, February 21, 2010, eight Mount Carmel students headed to Washington D.C. on a quest to learn more about the democratic processes that are such a unique and intricate part of the policies and procedures of our American government. As the airplane approached the runway of Washington’s Ronald Reagan National Airport, visions of snow greeted our wide-eyed Mount Carmel students. Participants of the 2010 Close Up Washington program included Juniors Brianna Bonner, Stuart Falcon, Jessly Perez, Marissa Simmons, and Ashley Lerma; Sophomore Thomas Tomayo; and Freshmen Vivian Victor and Devin Ligon. Each one of these students embarked on a very busy and jam-packed week full of sightseeing, political and current events workshops, social events, and educational debates.
The Close Up Foundation who is responsible for running the program was founded in 1971 through a burning desire to help American and international students become more familiar with politics in the United States. The Foundation itself offers teenage youth a “close up” view of our nation’s seat of government which is of course Washington D.C. As participants in this world renowned program, Mount Carmel students met an array of other students who came from Mexico, Iowa, California, Florida, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and other parts of Texas. The program that lasted throughout the duration of the week of February the 21st featured student membership of upwards of five hundred teenage youth. All of these students stayed in a total of five hotels throughout the greater Washington D.C. metro area. Mount Carmel students made their new home for an entire week the Key Bridge Marriot Hotel of Arlington, Virginia.
Our student participants got to see the White House, the Pentagon, the Capitol Building, the Supreme Court Building, the Smithsonian, the Holocaust Museum, and numerous D.C. monuments and memorials dedicated to America’s heroes and our country’s war dead. The students also participated in neighborhood studies pertinent to Washington’s ethnically diverse inner city areas inclusive of Chinatown and various university communities. On Wednesday, February 24th, Mount Carmel students met with staffers from Texas Senators Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn’s offices. The students were also able to meet face to face with Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee. All of these meetings took place on Capitol Hill.
Mount Carmel is already excited about next year’s Close Up program. This unique experience tends to be one of the major highlights of students’ high school careers. The Close Up Foundation continues to offer congratulations to the Mount Carmel community for our ability to sustain our educational institution despite the closure of Mount Carmel High School. Mount Carmel has enjoyed an awesome relationship with Close Up since the early 1980s.
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