By Jennifer Jacobson
Special to The Washington Post
Saturday, October 28, 2006

From her Woodley Park apartment, it takes Kaitlin Gallup five minutes to walk to class. Metro is even closer, and she has a short ride to her internship downtown.

The National Zoo is 10 minutes away, and so is Adams Morgan, a favorite hangout of Washington's students and young workers.

Gallup is a junior at Syracuse University. But instead of spending this fall on that school's spread-out and often snow-covered campus, the public relations major is enrolled in Syracuse's semester in Washington program. She takes classes at the university's building on Calvert Street NW and works as an intern at Fleishman-Hillard, a public relations firm.

It is one of many such programs that universities have established in Washington. Just as chemists need their laboratories to practice what they are learning, university officials say, political scientists need theirs.

But those students also need places to stay when they get here. That's why schools, including Syracuse, the University of California, and Stanford and Cornell universities have devoted resources to buying, renovating and refurbishing properties where their students can eat, sleep and learn.

And easily get around. To the students, location is everything.

University officials recognize this and have established their programs just steps from Metro stations, often in upscale, residential neighborhoods.

"It's so convenient," Gallup said of Syracuse's Paul Greenberg House, named for an alum who donated the money for the building. "I love the city. There's always something going on, all the different cultures." She enjoys the variety of restaurants in Woodley Park. "You have Lebanese across the street, Italian right down the block."

Each semester, about 30 undergraduates attend the program, which has been in Washington since 1990, said Ann Donahue, its executive director. Classes are held in the four-story building, while students live in Calvert House, an apartment building nearby.

Michael Schneider has taught in the program for nine years. The professor of international relations has an enviable commute. From his house he rides Metro two stops: Van Ness to Woodley Park.

He says he couldn't work in a lovelier building. A brick townhouse with white columns and a balcony, the Paul Greenberg House was built by a New York state senator at the turn of the 19th century. It has been a club and bar, then a rooming house. A local antiques dealer owned it before the university bought it and renovated it in 1989.

The building features three large seminar rooms that face south. "Light just streams in the windows in the wintertime," Schneider said. It's "beautifully situated."

Location was important to Stanford officials, too. Their building at 2661 Connecticut Ave. NW, just around the corner from the Syracuse program, is getting a major renovation and expansion. Construction crews have blocked off much of the building's front entrance since work began in December.

Adrienne Jamieson expects construction to end in February. Jamieson, the director of Stanford in Washington, said the university bought what was once a Thai restaurant next door. The addition will include a kitchen and dining room. The ground floor will feature a gallery space, with exhibits particular to Stanford.

Nearly 30 students enroll in the program each quarter, Jamieson said, but during construction, it can handle only 16. A former hotel, the four-story building has about 15 dorm rooms. "The big excitement from the student perspective is that there's a bathroom in the room," Jamieson said.

Unlike in many other semester-in-Washington programs, students do not have their own kitchens. Everyone, including Jamieson, who with her husband lives in a one-bedroom apartment in the building, eats together. "If you're going to have a group of students living and working together, that's a great advantage to be taking their meals together," she said, because it builds a strong sense of community.

Right now, that community is a bit scattered. The new dining room is not finished, so Stanford has worked out a deal with Constantine Stavropoulos, the owner of Open City, a diner across the street. Students this quarter receive gift certificates to grab breakfast there.

Everyone still eats together in the evenings, just not in the building.

Jamieson said Stanford has a deal with Petits Plats, the French restaurant next door, to serve the students dinner, but not from the restaurant's menu.

Jamieson said the university bought the building in 1988 thanks to a gift from Vicki and Roger Sant, Washington residents involved in the university. Although she was not at Stanford at the time, Jamieson said officials chose the location based on safety and the suitability of facilities. "It was perfect," she said. "It's a lovely neighborhood" and "most importantly, easily accessible."

Other university programs also are on Metro's Red Line. Since 1983, Cornell has housed its Washington semester program at 2148 O St. NW near Dupont Circle.

For several years the university leased the building, then bought it in 2003, said Linda Jarschauer Johnson, the executive director.

Between 45 and 50 students enroll each semester and live in the building's 27 apartments.

Johnson, who has been with the program for 23 years, said the university chose the location for its good public transportation options and because it's within walking distance to a lot of the students' externships.

Program alumni regularly drop in to say how much they loved the area. Johnson said she recently saw a student who had interned for Lee Hamilton, a former congressman from Indiana. The alum, now a doctor who visits Washington often, told her how much he, a suburban kid, had enjoyed living in the city.

"Most of the students report back that this was their best semester," Johnson said. Although she doesn't know for sure, she has observed that Cornell students who spend a semester in Washington are more likely to end up here and pursue careers in public service.

That's what happened to Elizabeth Victoreen. After spending a semester in Washington while a student at the University of California at San Diego, Victoreen loved the city so much she returned after graduation. She now works as an events planner in the UC Washington Center, located in an 11-story building at 1608 Rhode Island Ave. NW. The building opened in 2001 and houses student apartments, complete with kitchens, bathrooms and living rooms, as well as the university system's federal relations operation.

"I kind of like D.C. for everything that is not California," Victoreen said. "I love not having a car. I like that people are more civically engaged. You could talk politics with people and they knew what you were talking about."

Joe Olszewski likes that so many young people here are in leadership positions. "It's encouraging," said the Syracuse junior, who is an intern for Rep. James T. Walsh (R-N.Y.) this semester.

Olszewski ultimately wants to focus on public policy. But for now he's enjoying living more independently than he would back at school. He shares a two-bedroom apartment with three roommates in Calvert House. He smiles when he mentions the kitchen and dining area. "It's a lot nicer than being in a dorm," he said. "You feel like a grown-up."