Nearly 200 alumni attended the second annual D.C. Government Alumni Reception at Ben’s Next Door last night to network and hear remarks from D.C. mayor-elect Vincent Gray, B.A. ’64.
“I’m delighted to be an alumnus of George Washington University. Sometimes people ask me what I majored in, and I tell them I was in the pre-mayor program,” joked Mr. Gray, who will begin his term in January.
“My experience there was life-changing in so many ways…I look back on GW now as having prepared me for a life of public service,” Mr. Gray told attendees, who also enjoyed famous Ben’s Chili Bowl food and music performed by the Woodrow Wilson Senior High School jazz band at the event.
Mr. Gray, who has served as chair of the D.C. Council, executive director of the D.C. Association for Retarded Citizens, director of the D.C. Department of Human Services and co-founder of youth services nonprofit Covenant House, also remarked on the ways the local government and GW work together.
“The university now enjoys an absolutely exceptional relationship with the government of the District of Columbia,” said Mr. Gray, who became the first black member of a fraternity at GW. He studied psychology in the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences, and was awarded the university’s Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award in 2009.
University President Steven Knapp, who introduced Mr. Gray as a “civil rights pioneer,” also spoke to the relationship between D.C. and the university, highlighting GW’s economic impact on the district and students’ participation in community service.
“There are many, many ways in which we as an institution contribute to the District of Columbia—this great capital city—but there is no way that is more important than by educating the public servants of this great city. And that is all of you—you are what we really contribute to this city,” Dr. Knapp said.
Director of the D.C. Department of Health Pierre Vigilance, B.S. ’91, also stressed the importance of partnership, and credited GW with motivating him to pursue public service in D.C.
“I very much appreciate the opportunity to have gone to GW—to have gone to a school that actually is a part of the city and made me want to come back and be a part of the city,” said Mr. Vigilance.
Alumni Sarah Kalemkerian, M.P.A. ’07, Alexcia Harrison, M.P.P. ’09, Keesha Blythe, M.A. ’02, and Titi Williams-Davies, B.B.A. ’07, M.B.A. ’09, who all work in the District of Columbia Public Schools’ Office of Special Education, came to the event after work together.
“We wanted to come because it’s a good way to network and connect with alumni,” Ms. Williams-Davies said.
“And represent our office and show the great work we are doing,” Ms. Harrison added.
Mr. Gray also urged attendees to encourage current students to work for the D.C. government, saying “there is no more worthy endeavor…There is no more rewarding work than being able to work on behalf of the 600,000 people who live in this city.”