Washington Semester Program
Internships in the nation's capital are most easily available through the Lutheran College Washington Semester Program, which was founded in 1986 by a core group of Lutheran colleges to provide a quality residential Washington, D.C. semester exclusively for their students. The LCWS is a small, personalized program where you live, study, and intern while earning academic credit from Roanoke College. Students take two, one-unit academic courses taught by professors from surrounding universities as well as a two-unit internship.
River Place Apartments is located in Arlington and is home to the thirteen residential condominiums the students reside in while attending the program. The LCWS also maintains its own administrative offices, classrooms, computer lab, conference room, and study lounge in River Place Apartments. Located across the street from the U.S. Marine Corps Memorial, also known as the Iwo Jima Memorial, River Place is within walking distance to the Metro, a grocery store, several restaurants, the Rosslyn Post Office and many other stores and attractions.
In recent years, Roanoke College students attending the program have interned at the White House, the U.S. Supreme Court, the State Department, the Organization of American States, the D.C. Corporation Counsel, the ACLU, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the D.C. Rape Crisis Center, and on Capitol Hill.
Meet our students
Olivia Kitt ’20, a political science major, interned at Sen. Tim Kaine’s office.
Jessica Civetta '20, is a business administration major interning at So Others Might Eat, a nonprofit that helps and supports residents of the nation’s capital experiencing homelessness and poverty.
Elleri Vitwar ’20, a criminal justice major who is interning with the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project.
Nolan Webb interning in the Rayburn House Building.
Erin Keating studied Shakespeare at the Smithsonian Castle, in Washington DC, and later ended up getting the Fulbright Scholarship to continue to study Shakespeare abroad in the UK.
Macauley Etheridge '20, while interning at C-SPAN.
Abigail Supplee ’20, an Environmental Studies and political science double-major who interned at the American Public Health Association, Center for Climate Change, Health, and Equity.
Wesley Knowles, interning in Washington, DC.
Claudia Jacobs ’20, met Holocaust survivor, Esther Starobin, while interning at the National Holocaust Museum.
Group of students that experienced the Washington Semester in 2019.
See www.washingtonsemester.org for more information.
Contact: Dr. Todd Peppers | 540-375-2417 | West Hall 212