Anita Ortiz (née Woerner) began her connection with Close Up during a week-long high school program in 1988, learning about American government in collaboration with peers from across the country. She and other participants stayed on the Gallaudet University campus, a historic and prestigious institution for deaf and hard-of-hearing students in DC. Meeting students from […]

Maya Nieto was one of over a million people who filled the National Mall on a frozen Tuesday morning in January 2009 to witness President Barack Obama’s first inauguration. During her senior year at Mercy High School (San Francisco, CA), she traveled to Washington, DC, with several schoolmates, joining more than 3,000 students from across […]

Dr. Frank O. Mora, a 1981 Close Up alum, currently serves as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Western Hemisphere Affairs. In that position, he oversees policy issues and defense relations involving countries in the hemisphere as well as US government funding of hemispheric defense cooperation. Dr. Mora’s fascinating career has included teaching, advising, speaking, […]

Leon Harris may have moved to Washington in 2003 to become a news anchor for WJLA ABC7, but his first trip to DC was for a Close Up program in the spring of 1979. Arriving by bus from Akron, Ohio, Harris recalls seeing the sites of the nation’s capital for the first time and thinking: […]

Geoff Browning knows his way around the Capitol Building, having worked since 2010 in the House of Representatives. He currently serves as a Legislative Aide for Katherine Clark, Representative for the Massachusetts 5th Congressional District, with a policy portfolio that includes education, defense, foreign affairs, and homeland security. Rep. Clark’s office is lined with block […]

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the National Mall had recently been dedicated when Randy Schipper began training as a Close Up Program Instructor. As a 1982 graduate of Aquinas College in Grand Rapids, MI, he was just old enough to have clear memories from the height of the war debate. However, the high school students […]