Just two weeks ago, graduating seniors in the Legal Studies Academy (LSA) at First Colonial High School joined their comrades to cross the stage and fulfill the culminating event of their high school careers.
For a few graduates, it was yet another extraordinary day in a handful of once-in-a-lifetime experiences at First Colonial.
It all began with a simple conversation in class. A small group of LSA students who live and breathe foreign policy wanted to do more with their obsessive subject.
They wanted to “do something interesting.”
Just like that, the Foreign Policy Working Group (FPWG) was started.
The FPWG, an unofficial and informal gathering of LSA students, would meet and talk policy and current events. However, the club is best known for its field trips. The group would travel up to Washington D.C. to meet with some of the nation’s most influential minds in defense strategy and foreign affairs.
In 2011, six FPWG students were invited to meet Leon Panetta, then Secretary of Defense (SECDEF). Unfortunately, Panetta was called out of town on the day of the meeting, but he still arranged for his Navel Attaché to introduce the group to General John Kelly, senior military assistant to the Secretary of Defense.
The group was briefed and invited to watch the official reception of the Israeli military delegation.
From the SECDEF’s office, trips to the State Department and a briefing and lunch with Ambassador Clifford Hart followed the second year. This year, six students sat across the table from former Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, National Security Advisor General Brent Scowcroft, former Director of the CIA Michael Hayden, Deputy National Security Advisor Elliott Abrams and former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.
Months later, the students still drew a blank on how to describe the experience.
“It’s incredible,” said Sean Lewis, a rising senior at First Colonial. “I’m at a loss of words because it was absolutely amazing.”
“It took me a minute to register what was happening,” said Danielle Spach, a 2014 graduate. “You really don’t understand the impact until you get home.”
Her twin sister, and fellow graduate, Elizabeth, agreed.
“As soon as they walk in the room, (it’s an) adrenaline rush.”
Each of these trips was thanks to First Colonial teacher, and former DC staffer, John Sutton, who reached out to friends still working in the area to set up a series of meetings for his students.
For Sutton, the trips are a no-brainer.
“Instead of talking about the Iraq war, I sent six kids with me to talk to three architects of the Iraq war,” Sutton said. “What’s a more 21st century skill?”
The students would put all of their passion for foreign policy to work, spending hours preparing for these meetings; studying the decisions on which these men advised as well as the historical ramifications of those actions.
Originally, the high schoolers were scheduled for 20-30 minute meetings. However, in every case, the meetings were extended – if not doubled – because of how impressed the men were by the students’ interest, composure and knowledge.
Zac Freeman, one of the founders of the club and veteran of the trips, said it was important to the group that they were as prepared as possible.
“It’s very competitive to get an hour with these people,” he said.
From Iraq and 9/11 to Syria and Russia, the students were able to glean key insight into a world of decision making and analysis simply not covered in a textbook.
“It was really connecting the dots,” Lewis said.
“You learn things you never are going to learn in the classroom,” said Aaron Kubat, the youngest member of the group – a rising junior in the LSA. “To meet these people is an honor and a privilege we may never get again. It’s surreal. It’s unbelievable. It’s indescribable.”
And, if you’re Lewis, who happened to be running for senior class president at the time – it’s extremely fortuitous. He wasted no time in asking Rumsfeld for his official endorsement of his campaign.
Rumsfeld agreed, but Lewis was stopped short of filming a campaign video on his phone.
For their part, Sutton and the underclassmen have no plans in stopping their annual journeys to the nation’s capital.
In fact, they have already confirmed meetings with President Bill Clinton’s Press Secretary Mike McCurray, Attorney General John Ashcroft and Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas for next year. This is thanks, in part, to the students before them who have set the standard
“Word is spreading,” Sutton said. “We’ve got this network of people that are interested in speaking with our students because they’re so impressive and they don’t waste anyone’s time. ”
Yet, even these impressive students still cannot believe what their working group has become.
“It keeps getting better,” said Freeman. “Originally, we weren’t even thinking that big. In no way did we anticipate this. I cannot wait to come back and see who they’re meeting and see the pictures.”