Georgetown students are working as teaching assistants for a course on domestic and international affairs at Theodore Roosevelt High School, located in the Petworth neighborhood of Washington, D.C. 

Through the School of Foreign Service Academic Council (SFSAC), Chae Park (SFS ’22) and Aryaman Sharma (SFS ’24) visit Theodore Roosevelt High School every Friday to engage with students on topics like inclusion and racism. Most recently, Park and Sharma conducted a lesson regarding the relationship between Native American governments and the United States Constitution in a class titled “Principles of Government and Public Administration.”

Sharma said that through these lessons, the SFSAC is advancing its goals of teaching the next generation about racism on the domestic and international stage. 

“There are certain facts and events that many individuals are not aware of,” Sharma said in an interview with The Hoya. “So we use Native American government as an example in that many instances, facts of their own government were actually applied to the U.S. Constitution, and there was a clause that was agreed upon which identified this. But many individuals are just not aware of this.”

Park, who has been teaching at Theodore Roosevelt High School since her sophomore year at Georgetown, said engaging potential students leads to increased diversity in the campus and broader D.C. community. 

“I think this initiative really plays a critical part in our emphasis and in our way moving forward, how to promote that diversity in our student body,” Park said in an interview with The Hoya. “I think engaging directly with potential students is really important, and I think our initiative with Roosevelt is one direct way in which we can do that.”

The class also examines gender and race in the U.S. Constitution as well as the modern repercussions of its language, according to Sharma. 

“Our unit also discussed how we can be more inclusive with others around us and be more anti-racist, because the U.S. Constitution, when it uses the pronouns when referencing the President, is often excluding women running for presidency,” Sharma said. “And in addition to that, when it comes to different clauses like the three-fifths clause, although they are no longer in law, simply just having them in the Constitution itself kind of informs the racism that we’ve encountered and how we need to make that better.”

According to Chae, the two students also include a question-and-answer portion at the end of every lesson, which gives students at Theodore Roosevelt High School the opportunity to ask questions about the class as well as life at Georgetown. 

The SFSAC works to promote education and inclusivity not just at Georgetown, but in the D.C. community as a whole. 

“The SFSAC remains dedicated to our engagement with D.C., beyond the gates of Georgetown University,” the SFSAC wrote to The Hoya. “The SFS prepares students to become global leaders in the future and equips them with an international perspective, but we cannot ignore our friends and partners in the D.C. area. It is a fundamental part of our commitment to public service.”

Sharma hopes he can promote inclusivity and an analytical approach to U.S. history through his teaching.  

“I feel that as a Georgetown student and specifically in the School of Foreign Service, I’m incredibly privileged to learn about these topics actively through my courses and professors,” Sharma said. “And for me, it’s a great way of not only researching the topics myself and learning something that I didn’t know before, but also spreading the wealth and giving back to the community through Roosevelt High School.”