UNLV student government leaders Aaron Rosenthal and Luis Valera will be going to Washington, D.C., next month to attend President Clinton's inauguration and to participate in an academic seminar that will allow them to meet a variety of Washington notables.
The students' participation in "Campaign '96: The Inauguration," is being funded by the office of UNLV President Carol C. Harter and the UNLV Foundation. The program is an academic seminar sponsored by The Washington Center, a non-profit educational organization.
Rosenthal and Valera will spend a week in Washington attending the inauguration; participating in seminars with government leaders, journalists, and other prominent people; visiting historic sites; and working on academic assignments. Among the speakers already scheduled to meet with the students are ABC news correspondent Sam Donaldson and Edwin Meese, who was attorney general under President Reagan and now is a member of the Heritage Foundation.
Among the topics to be addressed during the seminar are how the election will affect foreign policy, how the election will affect the economy, which groups or interests will help set the national political agenda, and how the media and its new technologies will affect the politics of the presidency.
"I'm definitely excited," said Rosenthal, who is president of UNLV's student government, the Consolidated Students of the University of Nevada. "I think it's kind of a chance of a lifetime to get to go to something like this. I wouldn't miss it for anything.
"It's going to be a great educational experience," said Rosenthal, a senior who is majoring in business administration with an emphasis in finance.
Valera, director of Nevada Student Affairs for UNLV's student government, said, "I feel it's an honor to go and even be in the same building as the president of the United States.
"I plan to have a political career so this will give me an exposure I never thought I could get at this juncture in my life," said Valera, a senior majoring in political science. "I've never been to Washington, D.C., so that will be an experience in itself."
Harter said, "I'm so pleased that we are able to send Aaron and Luis to Washington to witness such an historic event and to participate in the seminar. I know this will be a valuable educational experience for them. It is my hope that when they return they will be able to apply what they have learned to their work with student government and will share their new insights with the other students."
The Washington Center provides full-time internships and short-term academic seminars for college students from more than 750 colleges and universities in the United States and abroad. Since its founding in 1975, more than 21,000 students have participated in its programs.
