Notre Dame’s College Democrats (CDems) wrapped up a long weekend in Washington, D.C., last Tuesday, trading campus life for Capitol Hill connections and career inspiration.
While College Democrats have traveled to Washington, D.C., for the past five years, outgoing political director and this year’s trip coordinator Jack Sirianni said he changed the format from a lobbying weekend to a career trek. Rather than attending conferences and lobbying Indiana legislators, the group participated in a series of panels and networking events organized by Sirianni and other seniors in the club.
[Editor's note: Sirianni is a columnist for The Observer.]
“[The D.C. trip] was always one of my favorite things, so it meant the world to me when I got the opportunity to lead it, but I knew I wanted it to look a little different,” said Sirianni.
Reflecting on previous experiences with the trip, Sirianni noted that engaging with lawmakers often felt like an uphill battle.
“For past renditions of the trip,” Sirianni said, “what would happen is, as Democrats, if we're talking to the Indiana members of Congress, they’re all Republicans. So as nice as they were, we never really got taken very seriously. Although we had put a lot of time and effort into it, they always just kind of ignored us, which didn’t feel good.”
This year, Sirianni decided to organize a boot camp teaching the 24 students who were chosen via application to attend what it looks like to, in his words, “live, work and be a force for good in DC.”
While the group hadn't had to turn away interested members in the past, Sirianni said this year’s high level of interest required a more selective participant process.
“Everyone who was chosen for this, we chose them for a reason. It’s kind of like an investment,” he said.
Students on this year's trip took on a more hands-on role in planning and logistics.
"We had to organize every single one of our about 10 to 15 events, meaning we had to coordinate with everyone’s schedule. I don't know how we did it all, but the entire trip went off without a hitch. I have a lot of people to thank for that,” Sirianni said.
The trip’s $35,000 budget came from ND Day fundraising and Club Coordination Council allocations. Sirianni credited a “record-breaking year in fundraising” ahead of the 2024 election for making the trip possible.
“Going to DC as a first-year, it really changed my outlook. It changed what I wanted to do after I graduated. It made me really, really passionate about giving back to the club. That really changed my life,” Sirianni said.
Sirianni explained that the group arrived Friday and spent the weekend “bonding.”
“We spent time exploring, going to museums and seeing the cherry blossom trees which peaked the same weekend we were there," wrote freshman Alexandra Funk in a statement to The Observer. Funk is the newly appointed political co-director of the club.
“Seeing DC in this capacity, with so many of my Notre Dame friends, was one of the greatest times I had all year,” Funk wrote.
Freshman Jorden Poulson, the other political co-director of the club, wrote in a statement to The Observer that the trip’s participants took the time to get to know each other, “which really made the trip special.”
Poulson said that the group began their day on Monday by meeting with Crystal Martinez, the executive director for federal relations at Notre Dame.
CDems then attended a panel organized by Martinez’s team of Notre Dame alumni working on Capitol Hill. Panel participants from fields including defense policy, immigration policy and healthcare policy presented. Students also met with the Environmental Defense Fund.
“It was fantastic to get to be on Capitol Hill and hear from people who were once in our shoes about what going into politics could look like,” Sirianni said.
Funk commented on the connection she made with an alumna currently working on Senator Tim Kaine’s staff.
“She gave me great career advice as well as great life advice. She told me to make sure to keep an open mind and stay flexible for work and in my personal life as well. She explained [that] it is important to make sure I have friends with differing political views from my own,” Funk wrote.
Monday evening, the Notre Dame Club of Washington, D.C. hosted a happy hour for the College Democrats, students in Notre Dame’s Washington Program and around 100 Democratic alumni in D.C.
”This was my proudest thing we did, because there’s never been a trip like this. There’s never been an event where we’ve brought that many active students together with that many liberal alumni who care about students and helping them be a force for good,” Sirianni said.
He explained that the happy hour was “like a big family reunion because we know these people. They were big brothers and sisters to us when they were here … it was refreshing as a senior to see that, as sad as I am to leave Notre Dame, there is something on the other side.”
The group met Tuesday with nonprofits where Notre Dame alumni work, including the Student Aid Alliance and the National Education Association (NEA).
“We talked about not only [the NEA’s] education work, but a lot of their immigration policy, especially after the Department of Education was just closed by the Trump administration … they were really in the weeds of all this,” Sirianni said.
“This was my first time in Washington and just seeing the place where democracy takes place was amazing to me. Being there just hours before Cory Booker’s historic speech made me realize that our voices have an impact on the world,” Poulson wrote.
Echoing Poulson’s excitement about Cory Booker’s speech, Funk wrote, “I want to be close to that energy and that history, which is why I aim both to intern there and work there one day.”
Poulson shared that the trip enabled him to determine where he’d like to intern during his time in the Notre Dame Washington Program next year. He said he wants to work at an organization causing “good trouble.”
