Faculty director Greg Marfleet discusses the unique opportunities offered by Politics & Public Policy in Washington, D.C. The upcoming program, led by Professor Marfleet and Steve Poskanzer, will run in the winter of 2027.
What was the inspiration behind the program? Why study politics and public policy in Washington D.C.?
The program predates me. It started with Steve Schier many years ago, and when he retired, there wasn’t a clear successor. Barbara Allen and I stepped up, and in 2012 we agreed to co-lead it. I think the inspiration is the fact that what happens in Washington is essential to what we study in Political Science. And, more recently, with the the introduction of the Public Policy program, we’ve realized that giving students a more experiential understanding of public policy from the perspective of policy makers helps students get a feel for the process—not just from lectures or readings or case studies, but by actually talking to the people involved in it. Washington is kind of the center of the universe for political scientists, and for public policy people.
What does a typical day look like on the program?
The program is divided into two typical days for every student. On Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday of every week, students will go to an internship. These can range from political internships working with parties or representatives on the Hill, to positions with non-government organizations and think tanks. There’s a range of things that students can get involved in, but these days are pretty much, “go to work.” They’ll get up in the morning, grab a coffee, get on the metro station, and find their way to their work place.
On Wednesdays and Fridays, we’ll typically organize a morning speaker and an afternoon speaker. Sometimes we do site visits, but other days we rent a conference space and bring the speakers to us. For security reasons, it’s sometimes easier to host speakers (such as those from intelligence communities) rather than go through the trouble of getting security clearance for their site, but it’s always fun to go in-person to places. We went to USAID, the Department of Transportation, the Urban Institute, and a number of NGO’s. We went to the Hill and met our senators and congressional representatives. Usually it’s two speakers and/or visits a day. Sometimes we’ll try to cram in three, but it’s tricky. I try to treat it like a class, in the sense that you’ll have a morning class and an afternoon class.
The weekends are a third kind of typical day. There is almost nothing that students are required to do on weekends, but we do try to offer them lots of opportunities to get involved. We’ll do outings, dinners, visits to museums, and go to a few sporting events, plays and musical performances.
How is student housing organized?
We had a really spectacular student housing situation last time—the faculty were actually in the same housing. Typically we rent furnished apartments in Pentagon City or Crystal City, which are areas directly south of the Pentagon. The Pentagon is one of the major transit hubs in the DC metro area, so the apartment complexes are kind of a luxury. They call them “Executive Apartments.” They’re typically within walking distance of one of the major metro lines. We were on the blue and yellow line last time, which are both really great ways to get into the city for students.
This time we might be in Virginia, up more towards the Arlington area, but it depends. The companies we negotiate with have multiple locations, so we may or may not have the opportunity to be in DC proper. The most important thing is access to transportation, because the students need to be able to get around. Last time we were in a multi-story high rise with a fitness center surrounded by retail. There was a Starbucks, a Whole Foods, a Costco and many other places. The students are expected to pretty much take care of their food. The apartments have kitchens, living rooms, and TVs. We have an arrangement where we have students share a bedroom; it’s pretty typical to have four students in a two bedroom apartment.
What makes this program unique? And what do you want students to know about Washington?
I think that the experiential and network activities that we do are central to career building. We’re the only program that offers an internship, and we do a lot with alumni to help build students’ professional networks. Last time, we rented a space for a cocktail hour mixer with 65 alumni who showed up to meet and have a drink and some hors d’oeuvres with students. I encourage the students to find people in the fields that they may be interested in for careers, and to make contacts. Mentorship opportunities are a key part of the program. We really want to connect you with somebody who might be a mentor outside of Carleton, who could help you, you know, decide whether you really want to be an international lawyer or really want to work for the State Department or the intelligence community or or work for an NGO, or community activism or whatever it is. We’d like them to find an exemplar: somebody who they can relate to, and that can sort of help them along the way.
Also, the students select and apply beforehand for their own internships. I call it the “hidden curriculum” of the program. Once we’ve accepted students, we’re going to strongly encourage them to search for an internship, and we’re hoping they will go all out to find something. The Career Center can help out with this. The act of finding your own internship is a key precursor to the entire experience. Hopefully students will tackle this in the summer so they’ll have a lead time of about six months to try and find something. But if they aren’t lucky, then we can help out in the fall, reaching out to people and using alumni connections. We’re going to really try to get aggressive in early September and October, making sure that every student has a line on some internships.
What are you most looking forward to?
I love DC. I really enjoy the walkability of the city, and the fact that it’s not a Minnesota winter. But just the amenities of the city—being able to step out of your apartment, jump on the metro, head downtown, go out to a restaurant, go to one of the Smithsonians, just to see, just to be around all that the city has to offer, is incredible. The other thing I’m looking forward to is reconnecting with the alumni. There’s a really fantastic alumni community in DC, and I enjoy getting to renew acquaintances with some of them and meet new ones. There are some amazing people doing incredible work. And they’re Carls, so they’re all bright and curious, and they stay that way throughout their lives.
Why should students consider going on an off campus studies program?
I think experiential learning is really powerful. However great we may be as teachers, a lecture from me is not nearly as impactful as hearing something out of your senator. It’s a totally different experience. I teach methodology, right? I couldn’t teach methodology out there. I have to have lab space and data and stuff like that. There are skills you can teach here, and skills you can teach in the field, and they are going to be different experiences. Also, there’s a lot of individual growth that happens in an off-campus environment. You’re close to being out there on your own in the big bad world. You’re doing an internship, you’re working, you’re managing the various responsibilities you have in life. You’re learning what it is to be professional, to be on time, to be reliable, and you’re having to demonstrate all that in an environment where you’re surrounded by bright and accomplished people. I think that has a huge impact on students.
On our program, students get to see themselves represented. They see people like them, who came up through the same educational systems or have the same kind of aspirations (we meet with a lot of Carls) or who are doing jobs that they might like to do, which can be inspiring. I think there’s something powerful in seeing your interests mirrored in other places. A lot of our students get what we call “Potomac Fever,” which is when they want to go back to Washington and pursue careers afterwards. A huge proportion of them do. I think that’s the real leverage of this program: allowing them to see themselves.
Is there anything else you would like to highlight about the program?
I think this year might be a little different because Steve Poskanzer, the retired president of the college, is joining me as a faculty director. We’ll have a little more focus on legal stuff this year because Steve is a lawyer, and went to school with Elena Kagan, the Supreme Court justice. I’m hoping we will fulfill our goal of getting more focus on legal issues, careers in the law, the court system, and criminal justice in the DC area. Also, this year we’ll be coming off the 2026 election in November. We’ll be arriving in Washington in a new era, and we’ll see what that means. It promises to be interesting.
