Annapolis and DC

This past week, I traveled for two whole days to visit some schools in Annapolis and D.C., as well as attend the first CPAC Planning Meeting of the year for the March 1-3, 2007 conference that brings together the conservative movement.

My first stop was Annapolis, where I met up with some really great and motivated students from St. John's College and the U.S. Naval Academy. It appears they are now going to start up a new ISI reading group between the two schools. (sorry if this is a boring description, I'm really tired)

I was heading to D.C. earlier than expected to stay at my friend Rick's place, so I called around a few folks (since Rick wasn't back home yet). I ended up getting in touch with John McCormack at GWU to see if he was around. He sure was and informed me that there was the first meeting of the year for his Collegiate Network publication, the GWU Patriot. So, I showed up - I got there a little early (seemed to be a trend for the night) and the College Republicans at GWU were still having their very large and impressive meeting. So, I got to introduce myself to a few new students (I didn't come that prepared for 100 students!) I just mingled with a few sharp ones and they were happy to hear about ISI's resources.

I stuck around and met a few potential new writers for the Patriot, as well as some other editors on the staff. After getting some ice cream with them, I headed over to Capitol Hill to stay at Rick's place, where his roommates introduced me to the show "Lost". Now, I'm hooked on that.

The next day, I went to Georgetown and sat in on the class of the legendary Father James V. Schall. He has written many books, including a few of my favorites, On the Unseriousness of Human Affairs and the ISI Student's Guide to Liberal Learning. It was a fun 50 minutes, which turned into an extra special 2 plus more hours with the man across the lunch table. David Beer, our ISI Campus Representative at Georgetown set it all up and attended the lunch with 2 other ISI students from the class. Father Schall was awesome. I have always looked forward to meeting him, and this was an amazing opportunity that few privileged folks could have. He's very entertaining and has a great sense of humor. Not to mention, brilliant.

Later, I met with Peter Redpath at the Federalist Society to discuss how ISI and the FedSoc could work together a bit more on the educational front of college campuses. Peter was an ISI honors fellow back in the 90's. After he received his law degree, he went to work for the Federalist Society, where he has been for a good 6 or 7 years.

Next stop: back to the University of Maryland-College Park. This time I was meeting with some College Republicans who are poised to make the next advance of the conservative campus movement at UMCP, where I got my start in that venture. After that was done, I returned back to D.C. to hang out with Rick and his roommates for a bit. I had to get up early though, for the first CPAC planning meeting... which I might blog about next.