On Wednesday, Feb. 25 Oakton’s senior class boarded the metros bright and early for the annual Capitol Hill field trip. Over the years, this trip has become legendary as government students take to what is considered the most powerful and politically buzzing city in the nation: Washington, D.C.
In past years, students have taken advantage of the trip by meeting congressmen, exploring the renowned Library of Congress, sitting in on private meetings behind closed doors, and so much more. This year was no exception to the limitless possibilities. Senior Mera Shabti got the chance to bump into a former senator at a barber shop in the Rayburn House Office Building (RHOB), while seniors Kelsey McWilliams and Matt Yao caught a glimpse of current US Senator John McCain during their time in the Capitol Dome.
“I was on a tour of Capitol Hill in the Dome part and [he] walked through with a ton of security. I saw him for about seven seconds,” said McWilliams, recounting the experience.
As learned in years before on this trip, the sighting of a political figure students can normally only read about in text is surprisingly not difficult to come by when in the Capitol.
One unique opportunity the seniors were privy to this year was sitting in on a Supreme Court case. Early Wednesday morning was the highly anticipated Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Abercrombie & Fitch Stores, Inc. case in which the court argued the constitutionality of an employer refusing to hire an applicant based on religious and observance of practice. Only the first 100 people in line at the Supreme Court were granted access to the hearing and of the fifty Oakton students willing to wake up before 6AM for it, only a handful went in after a three hour wait in the cold. According to senior Cate Pfeiff, an AP Government student that made it into the hearing, the students were only allowed five minutes in the court but were instead given a full forty-five minutes until the end of the proceedings.
“I was surprised at how relaxed the environment was,” said Pfeiff, “The Supreme Court justices were making jokes, but also asking relevant and thought-provoking questions. Overall it was an incredibly enlightening experience and made what we read about in the news and textbooks personal.”
Every year the Capitol Hill field trip fuses the perfect amount of applying what students have learned in class to real life. Taking advantage of the school’s proximity to the nation’s capitol, Oakton is doing things right in keeping this senior tradition.
