Tour the Capitol Campus with a Junior Who’s Finding His Footing in Policy

These days, Christopher Edwards' (C'27) life looks a lot different from how it did last year.

For one, the junior is living in downtown Washington, DC, a few blocks from the U.S. Capitol. He often cooks Jamaican food in his apartment and zips around the city on the Metro.

Edwards is part of the inaugural cohort in the Joint Program in Public Policy, an undergraduate degree program in which juniors and seniors move from the Hilltop to the Capitol Campus, living and learning in the heart of the policy world.

"Being on the Capitol Campus has helped me to become more independent and exploratory," he said. "Because this campus is in the city, you enjoy what the city has to offer."

Edwards is also heavily involved in Georgetown's community. He's part of the First Fellows Program, Community Scholars Program, the Caribbean Culture Circle, the Afrika graduate student organizationat the McCourt School of Public Policy, and a tour guide on the Capitol Campus.

In this first-person story, Edwards shares how immigrating from Jamaica to the U.S. fueled his interest in policy and what it's like living and taking classes in downtown DC.

I came to Georgetown because I thought I was going to change the world. I still think that.

I was born and raised in Jamaica, and I spent sixth grade through high school in Birmingham, Alabama.

At first, it was nice coming to the U.S. It was what I would see on TV: the suburban life, a two-story house with a garage, everyone eating pizza and nuggets.

But as I got older, I realized that being a first-generation student, low-income, and, most importantly, Black in America, has had a huge impact on the American experience that I saw on TV.

My family was living in a small one-bedroom apartment that was zoned for a predominantly white school district, a very wealthy district. Then I had to shift to a predominantly Black and Hispanic school system.

That experience was much more different. Even though they say the districts are equal and there are enough teachers and resources, it was not the best. A lot of the students were behind.

I saw that inequity, and I wanted to change that.

That's why I'm here at Georgetown. I'm here to go into education policy and social welfare policy.

Being on the Capitol Campus and taking classes has been great.

I always want to ask why I'm learning something, and I can see how I'll be able to apply the classes I'm taking now in the future.

In my International Development class, we're looking at development programs that have and haven't worked in other countries. In Political Analysis, we looked at the impact community organizations have in making changes.

Last summer, I interned with a church that focused on community development in Detroit. I was able to make correlations between what I was learning in my classes and the governmental system that people have to interact with on a daily basis. Policies affect people's lives in many ways.

I'm at a crossroads where I could do ministry/nonprofit work, but I could also make changes through policy.

There are so many different avenues I can take on the Capitol Campus.

Being on the Capitol Campus has helped me to become more independent and exploratory. I get to enjoy the actual city.

I take the green line to my church on Sundays. I get a view of the Capitol when I'm walking to class. It's a reminder like, oh, this is why I'm here.

The dorm is really nice. I've started cooking more Jamaican food. I call my grandmother often to ask about ingredients and to walk me through the steps of a dish.

I work in the Student Affairs office, and we partnered with the Georgetown Law Student Bar Association to coordinate the Capitol Campus' first restaurant week. We had lunch with them, and I could picture myself as a Georgetown Law student. There's just a tug, like, this is who I aspire to be.

I talk about that when I give tours [of the Capitol Campus]: You get to interact with all these different people from different stages of life.

There are law students here and McCourt graduate students, and I love that fact. There are so many people to learn from who are not undergraduates. Many of these students have had jobs, and you can ask them questions. They're amazing, funny, knowledgeable, wise. I get to have that here.

What I'm hoping to get out of this program is to learn from other people and build relationships and get to a point where I can say, yes, I really enjoy doing this.

I found a community here. And I think I can grow here.