A Glance at UMass-Dartmouth Graduates’ Capital Life
UMD
The New Bedford Standard-Times
Guanlei Ren
Boston University Washington News Service
November 19, 2008
WASHINGTON— It is a city for politics. It is also a city for people to chase their dreams. Seventeen young graduates of the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, listed as “friends” on a Facebook group for university alumni, are chasing their dreams in the nation’s capital.
But they don’t really know each other. They were invited to join UMass Dartmouth—Washington D.C. Alumni Club on Facebook, a social networking Web site, by friends of friends or by their friend’s friend’s friend.
Some of them were willing to share their stories of life in the capital city, to talk about their dreams and to reflect on whether the real world is what they expected.
Lee Lukoff, a Republican from South Dartmouth, came here for the politics after graduating in May from UMass Dartmouth with a degree in political science. With no Republican members of Congress from Massachusetts, Mr. Lukoff sent out applications to numerous Republicans, both in the Senate and the House, and said he was fortunate to get an internship with Rep. Tom Feeney, R-Fla.
“I really liked my internship because every day I felt like I was doing something important,” Mr. Lukoff, a graduate of Dartmouth High School, said.
He said he learned how Congress works from the inside and how a congressional office works. He was responsible for writing letters to constituents about issues they were concerned with, compiling newspaper articles and attending committee hearings and policy briefings, where he would take notes and write memos.
“Despite the fact that I was unpaid, few people get the chance to intern for a congressman, and the experience can pave the path to future jobs in politics and in government,” Mr. Lukoff said.
Rep. Feeney lost his seat in the Nov. 4 election, and Mr. Lukoff, like other office staff, is helping pack up the office and moving on to job hunting in other congressional offices, think tanks, interest groups and non-profit organizations.
Amy Morse also was a political science major and graduated from UMass Dartmouth in 2003. In the capital city, unlike Mr. Lukoff who works directly in politics, Ms. Morse works as a communications and policy associate at a non-profit and nonpartisan organization—the Committee for Economic Development.
After graduating from college, Ms. Morse was hired by the John Kerry presidential campaign and worked for a year in her home state of New Hampshire campaigning for the 2004 Democratic nominee. She held signs in the freezing cold, made hundreds of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and made more phone calls than most people make in a lifetime.
Now she said she values Washington as a place for public service more than a place for politics.
“Working in economics is a great perspective on how valuable our human resources are in this country,” she said.
When she was in college she did an internship with Youth Serve in New Bedford, working as a mentor to at-risk youths; in Washington, she volunteers with the public school reform effort.
She dreams of running for office in New Hampshire, Ms. Morse said. “I really enjoy policy and working with people.,”
Nicole Di Fabio, a 2006 graduate from UMass Dartmouth, is semi-involved in politics, she said. “I feel that everything is political to some extent or another.”
Ms. Fabio’s job as a research associate at the Commission on Professionals in Science and Technology is her first job after graduation. She said she was very persistent in looking for jobs related to her majors—anthropology and women’s studies. Her dream is to be a professor of anthropology and women’s studies.
“Many people may view these disciplines to be more abstract, and not understand what comes from having a background in these areas,” Ms. Fabio said. “But in reality, these disciplines help you to understand life and other people as deeply as one can without actually being in the person’s shoes.”
In Ms. Fabio’s opinion, Washington is a city that seems to value social science far more than other cities do. So she looked endlessly in the “right places,” she said. “I would have continued to look until I found what I thought was right for me.”
In February 2008, her alma mater’s women’s studies department invited her to speak on a panel with Gloria Steinem, a women’s movement leader in the 1970s and co-founder of Ms. Magazine, in front of more than 200 people. “I think that is one moment in my life that I will always remember and value above all others,” she said.
For Paul Ferrari, an English literature major who also graduated in 2006, his most valuable lessons at college were not directly from classes but from his involvement with the UMass Dartmouth Theater Company, a student-run organization.
In his senior year, he was the president and company manager and learned not only how to work with his peers but how to cope with also a variety of administrative tasks, including negotiating the university’s bureaucratic contracting system.
Originally from Webster, Mass., Mr. Ferrari is currently working as a communications associate at a non-profit national education organization—the Council of Chief State School Officers.
“I am interested in politics, and am thrilled to be living in D.C. during such an exciting time in American history,” Mr. Ferrari said.
But, he said, he will probably end up working in the arts in some capacity. Before coming to Washington he had a year-long internship at a theater in Florida. Though it was a great experience, Mr. Ferrari said, it wasn’t “socially and professionally where I wanted and needed to be.”
In Washington, he said, “there’s always someone willing to engage in a conversation about current events and what’s going on around them. I feel like it was harder to have those conversations in other places.”
The mix of people and the opportunity to talk about current events is one of the attractions of the city, Mr. Ferrari said.
The four UMass Dartmouth graduates say they enjoy meeting friends after work, spending time at the gym and visiting the city’s numerous public and private museums. Mr. Lukoff, who minored in history, said his favorite museum is the National Archives. Ms. Morse, who likes art, favors the Philips Collection and the National Gallery of Art. Ms. Fabio loves the National Museum of Women in the Arts. And Mr. Ferrari is a big fan of the National Gallery of Art as well as the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden..
“Work hard and play hard” is a Washington mantra, Ms. Morse said. However, after one year of living in Washington, she has found it is too expensive to “play hard.” Young people working on the Hill and for non-profit organizations don’t make much money, she said.
To all the four of them, the difference between campus and professional life has a common point—a relatively fixed schedule.
“I understand now why my parents went to bed so early when I was younger,” Ms. Fabio said. “Working full time really changes the amount of energy I have when the work day ends.”
As to the future, three of them have a specific graduate school plan. Mr. Lukoff is a part-time public policy student at George Mason University. Ms. Morse is applying for a public affairs master’s program at American University. Ms. Fabio is to start her graduate studies in anthropology at George Washington University in January.
As for Mr. Ferrari, he said, “I haven’t made plans to settle down and live here forever.”
What’s the next stop for him? “I will probably move to where grad school brings me next. I am not in a rush to find that out yet.”
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