Trip to Washington DC

This last week I was able to attend a conference in Washington DC. This conference had a different purpose than ones I have attended in the past. Instead of presenting some of my work and listening to research presentations from others, this conference focused on training participants how to advocate for psychology with legislators. I think there were about 80 or so of us who were invited to attend. For two days straight from 7:30 to 5:00 pm I had back-to-back meetings. Most of them were pretty interesting and I learned a lot in them, but it was also difficult to just sit there for an entire day and not be able to work on my own projects.

The Pocatello airport is a pretty small airport. This is great because it means we never have to worry about crowds or paying for parking or anything like that, but there are only maybe two or three flights in and out of it each day.

Here is my hotel room. It was in the Capital Hilton. It was pretty nice which was good since I had to spend five nights there.

I did have one day open to visit some of the Smithsonian museums. I primarily wanted to go to the Holocaust Museum. My last trip to DC where I had time to go to the museums was my trip with Julia and I heard that it isn't really a great museum for younger kids so we didn't go. So I was really looking forward to it this time. I liked it a lot, but I wish they would have had a few more artifacts on display. There were some, but most of it was just looking at pictures, reading signs, and watching short videos. I think I did spend about 4 hours in it though.

In order to get into the main part of the museum they have you crowd into these elevators. I think it is supposed to give you the impression of entering the gas chambers.

 

I didn't take many pictures inside even though they were allowed. This one was probably one of my favorite rooms though. The walls were lined with pictures three stories tall. All the pictures were from a small town that was completely destroyed by Hitler.

Right when you enter you get to take an identification card of someone who was impacted by the Holocaust. There were thousands of cards stacked up to choose from and the one that I picked out just happened to have by same birthday. You are supposed to read through the different pages as you walk through the museum to see what happened to the individual.

After the Holocaust museum I walked around to a few others and made it to the Museum of American History, the Museum of Natural History, the Art Museum, and the National Botanical Garden.

Last time I was here I don't think I saw the mummy display so I made sure to see that.

This is a bull that they worshiped in their temple. After it died they mummified it like they would one of their Pharaohs.

When Julia and I came a year and a half back they were just setting up the dinosaur exhibit. We only got to see this Tyrannosaurs Rex's head, so it was fun to see the finished exhibit.

The art museums are always fun to visit. Here are some of my favorite paintings that they had on display there.

Rembrandt's painting of the apostle Paul. 

Daniel in the Lion's Den (artist is Sir Peter Paul Rubens)

 The Prodigal Son (artist is Puvis de Chavennes, Pierre)

 

 Renoir's Girl with a Hoop painting

 Monet's Woman with a Parasol painting - I think it is supposed to be his wife and son.

Monet's Japanese Footbridge - While I am not a fan of everything impressionism, I do like these ones by Monet.

A few ballerina paintings by Degas. We have read a few kids books about him.

Van Gogh's self-portrait. He painted this while in a mental asylum after suffering from a psychotic break. I didn't know this, but he only ever sold one painting in his lifetime. However, in this picture he painted himself as a painter - it was his way of trying to say that he should be taken seriously as an artist.

The White House - my hotel was actually just two or three blocks north of it. 

The National Museum of African American History and Culture. It wasn't finished yet, but a year and a half ago when Julia and I were here I thought I remembered it looking almost the same. I guess I can just remember that when I think our house is taking a long time.

The Washington Monument 

The Capital building.

Senator Risch - there were two of us from Idaho so we did the visits together. The other person is actually my department chair at Idaho State University.

Senator Crapo

The conference ended with all of us going to Capital Hill and meeting with the offices of our Senators and Representatives to advocate for restored eligibility for graduate students for subsidized loans. I was glad that this was the issue that we were discussing with our legislators because the American Psychological Association (the group I was representing) often advocates for stances that I do not agree with. Prior to 2011 graduate students could get subsidized student loans (loans where the interest doesn't start to accrue until after the student graduates) similar to undergraduate students. However, in 2012 that was taken away from them. The Higher Education Act is up for re-authorization soon and so we were asking our legislators to consider restoring the possibility of subsidies for graduate students as part of that act. Rebecca and I were fortunate enough that we made it through graduate school without having to take out any student loans. However, the average student who graduates from a psychology PhD program has accrued about $120,000 in debt. Psychologists really don't make all that much money and so the worry is that the high level of debt will deter many people from pursuing an education in this area of study (but the demand for mental health care providers is on the rise), causes significant distress for students while pursuing their education, and results in fewer psychologists moving to more rural communities where there is already the biggest shortfall in providers (they feel a greater push to move to the metropolitan areas for the higher paying jobs). While I agree that students should avoid debt as much as possible, the schedule of most graduate programs does not allow students to take on a job and so if the program does not cover tuition or provide a stipend for teaching or research assistantships, then the students have to take out loans to pay for their education. The way I view this is I wasn't asking the government to pay for anything (not asking them to pay for the students' tuition or anything like that), instead, I was asking them to lower the taxes (in the form of interest rates) that are placed on graduate students. I met with the legislators who represent Idaho, Senator Risch (he just basically came in and took a picture with us and mainly we met with one of his staff), Representative Simpson (just a member of his staff), and Senator Crapo (we actually did meet with him for the entire time). They were all very receptive to our message and agreed that the graduate student debt is a problem, not just in psychology, but across all disciplines. Senator Crapo was probably the most receptive and indicated that he would talk to the committee chair who was currently working on the Higher Education Act to make sure this issue got placed in it.