Just like the second week, week three flew by only because we did so much. On Monday, we visited the World Bank and learned about how it functioned and about its aim to help better the world by ending poverty. We also had dinner that night as a family with our cohort, as well as Dr. Vaquera and Mario. The dinner was a nice way to start the last week as it would be one of the last times our group would be together without worrying about our projects or how little time we had left. We sat back and enjoyed our time there, as one big family.
On Thursday we attended the CHLI (Congressional Hispanic Leadership Institute) conference and heard members of Congress speak, and were able to meet Latino leaders in the private sector who work for companies like Ford and Accenture, as well as those in the public sector who work in nonprofits. That same night, we had dinner with our parents, who came to see all the work we had done in these three weeks we had spent without them. It was really nice to see our parents after such a long time, and for them to be able to see all the time and effort we placed into our Community Action Projects (CAPs). We all had dinner together and parted ways, as the group had to pack up that same night for our trip back home the next day, and make our final preparations for our CAP presentations the next morning.
On Friday, our last day, we presented our CAPs to people we had met in the three weeks prior, and to our parents. Afterwards, we had lunch and ate one last time together, and had a graduation ceremony for our cohort. We said our goodbyes to one another, and to Jayson our resident advisor who helped us whenever we had questions or issues at our dorms in the Mount Vernon Campus, to Mario who worked vigorously to coordinate the amazing program, and to Dr. Vaquera who directed the institute which made this program possible. Even though we all parted ways, none of us will forget the time we spent together and the amazing experiences that we had at GWU.
–Raul Morones
