By Sean Bland
The wide world is all about you: you can fence yourselves in, but you cannot for ever fence it out. - JRR Tolkien
What a fantastic few opening weeks we have had here in the Capital Fellows program! All of us are fully underway with our various jobs and internships, teaching and working at everywhere from McLean Presbyterian, to nonprofits, think tanks, and congressional offices. We’re all really starting to learn the ropes of our various positions, and I know that I speak for most of us when I say that we are beginning to get a sense of home here already, due in large part to the continued love and support of our host families, the Capital Fellows staff, church members, each other, and everyone that has been praying on our behalf from around the country.
In the last few days, we also visited a local school where we will be volunteering and tutoring on a weekly basis. Getting the chance to not only help students succeed, but doing so together as a fellows class, is one of the most exciting, and will certainly be one of the most fulfilling, things we do as a group here. But we are not only helping students, we are students ourselves! In our time between work, church, and volunteering, we are also taking seminary courses, reading, and writing essays. Needless to say, we have been quite busy and pretty tired! Man, and I thought I did not have much free time in college ….
I can’t think of many other post-graduate programs where in the course of one week, you sit in a class and learn about the history of philosophy and Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle one day, give a tour of the Capitol Building to congressional constituents the next, and then share stories at your senior pastor’s home the day after that.
It’s been busy, but we have oh so much more to do and see. The bucket list of things to do around here, given to us at the start of the program is pretty extensive. In our little bits of free time, we have had a chance to explore and eat out some, but many more adventures are still in store.
When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
The moon and stars, which you have set in place,
What is man that you are mindful of him,
And the son of man that you care for him?
Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings,
And crowned him with glory and honor.
Psalm 8
Sean Bland
Capital Fellows Class of 2019
Graduate of Yale University
Scenes from the Week
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