St. Albans School of Public Service

Last Friday, SPS Alums gathered together on the St. Albans Rooftop. On this beautiful spring evening, alums reconnected with old classmates and faculty (or in the case of the Class of 2020, met in-person for the first time!), met those who had come before or after them in the program, and enjoyed bites and beverages while soaking in the beauty of DC. We had such a blast seeing everyone there, and we hope to be able to have another alum event soon!

Calling all past SPSers! We are hosting an Alum Event next week, and we would love to see you all there! Check your email for an invite, or DM us if you didn’t receive an invitation but would like to know more!!
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Our next Alum Spotlight is Sayed Mirbacha, a 2024 graduate of SPS! After completing SPS, Sayed began to focus on mental health advocacy and empowering students surrounding the subject of mental health. Sayed completed the Community Leader Program and served later as an advisor for the program. His work as a Community Leader empowered him to paint an inspirational mural at his school (pictured on the next slide!). Sayed received the Marilyn Shular Human Rights Award for the City Club of Boise during his senior year of high school. After graduating, he registered to be a Crisis Text Line volunteer. Now, at Boise State University, Sayed is working to create a peer mentoring program, “providing mentorship in rehabilitation facilities and shedding light on the lives of those feeling lost.”

Congratulations on all that you have accomplished, Sayed, and those of us over here at SPS cannot wait to see what you will do next!

On this Veteran’s Day, we honor and thank all of those who have served our country (if you are an SPS Alum and a Veteran or an Active Service Member, please let us know! We would love to spotlight you in a future post).
We also want to take a moment to honor SPS Board Member Paul Ignatius, who died at age 104 last week. Mr. Ignatius was a long-time public servant, ultimately rising to be Secretary of the Navy. As you can see from the attached picture, he even has a guided-missile destroyer named after him. Mr. Ignatius was a founding member of the SPS Board and its longest-serving member, an important enough position in his life that it merited a mention in his obituary in the New York Times.

To read more about Paul Ignatius, click here: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/06/us/politics/paul-ignatius-dead.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

We are back with another SPS alum spotlight! This week, we are highlighting Spencer Moffat, SPS Class of 2016. Spencer served in the U.S. Army for 4 years as an infantry officer, and was stationed at Fort Campbell with the 101st Airborne Division for over 2 years. During this time, Spencer was awarded an air assault badge for passing air assault school, served as an assistant operations officer, served as a rifle platoon leader, and was awarded 2 Army Achivement medals.

SPS teaches students that there are countless ways to serve the public, and our alums are a reflection of that truth! Thank you for your service, Spencer!

This past June, Dorothy Vickery, SPS ‘09 alum (pictured above in the purple dress), won a Tony Award for Best Broadway Musical as a Co-Producer. “Maybe Happy Ending” is a musical about two robots and their budding romance in futuristic Korea. On top of co-producing the show, Dorothy raised an incredible amount of money from investors in order to finance this production.

As our students learn at SPS, there are lots of ways to serve the public good, and writing high quality entertainment is certainly one of them! Congratulations to Dorothy!

Check out this article about one of our most recent alums, Soana Agasaro! We loved getting to hear about how SPS challenged Soana to “think critically about morality and the ways historical events continue to shape contemporary society.”

https://www.pineywoods.org/post/learner-spotlight-soana-agasaro-embodying-pws-values-on-campus-and-beyond

Though summer may be over, our SPS alumni are busier than ever! Last week, SPS alums Brhane Gezahegne ‘25 and William Cantrell ‘25 attended an event at board member Susanna Quinn’s house, where they heard from Representative Nancy Pelosi as well as four other Democratic congressmen.

Brhane shares: “It was so amazing to meet Ms. Pelosi and to hear her reiterate SPS’s aim to support young students that are interested in the world of public service.”

What a final week!

Students started the week with guest speaker Dennis Ross and a discussion about the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict. Later that day SPS did a trip to CNN to visit Jim Sciutto, who is the chief national security correspondent for CNN.

Next, SPSers had a networking session on professionalism, where they were taught how to make a LinkedIn profile and good networking strategies.

SPS also spent a lot of time by the Capitol this week, meeting with the Democratic Whip Katherine Clark, and later that day, they met with Congressman Brendan Boyle from Pennsylvania.

We can’t forget the annual SPS mock press conference where students took turns representing different news media outlets while other groups presented bills they’d written and proposed.

We were so excited to have such amazing guest speakers this week! On Tuesday, we heard from guest speakers Michael Leiter from Skadden and Meghan Latcovich, the chief of staff to Ambassador Cindy H. McCain.
Later in the week, students heard from Damon Clark, who’s currently at the University of Arizona, and Alan Raul, founder of Sidley Austin LLP’s Privacy and Cybersecurity practice. Lastly, students heard from Geraldine Byrne Nason, who serves as Ireland’s Ambassador to the U.S..

The congressional bill project culminated with the SPS congressional debate, where each student represented a senator from each state, and they debated the bills they had been working on throughout the program, and voted to either pass or veto each bill.

At St. Albans, students engaged in fun events to cap off the end of the program, including a talent show and final banquet, where they gave toasts and shared parting words to their classmates from the program!

A perfect way to end off SPS 2025!

Week 3 is a wrap!

This week started with our students hearing from guest speaker Charles Stimson, who served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Detainee Affairs. Later that day, they took a trip to the Business Roundtable for a Q&A with the Former White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten.

While at St. Albans, SPSers continued to work on their Executive Authority projects and participated in a Climate Change simulation where they represented corporations, countries, and lawyers arguing for various environmental changes. SPSers sat in on a statistics class and its role in public service.

Later in the week, the students participated in a session on the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict where they were encouraged to ask questions and learn the history surrounding the conflict.

Students took field trips to the National African American Museum of History and Culture, visited the Hudston Institute, and met Elaine Chao, the U.S. former secretary of labor during the Bush Administration, and former secretary of transportation during the first Trump administration.

SPS also took a trip to the Supreme Court to meet with Associate Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan.

We ended off the week with fun activities, including Laser Tag, dinner, and an outdoor movie!

One more week to go!

Week 2 was one for the books!

SPSers kicked off with a scenic water taxi ride from Georgetown to Old Town Alexandria before stepping back in time at Mount Vernon—where they participated in a George Washington cabinet simulation at the presidential library and enjoyed a fireworks show over the Potomac.

At St. Albans this week, students heard from Kevin Martin—a former FCC Chairman and current lobbyist for Facebook, Tyler Pager—a White House correspondent at The New York Times, and Daniel Lippman—White House and Washington reporter at POLITICO. Then, SPSers got exclusive access to a behind-the-scenes Capitol tour with former Senator Chris Dodd.

They also visited the Holocaust Memorial Museum and met Judge Boasberg, Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for D.C.

Field trips continued with a day in Annapolis, touring the U.S. Naval Academy and meeting Maryland Secretary of Service and Civic Innovation Paul Monteiro at the Statehouse. At the Maryland Statehouse, SPSers got a surprise visit from MD Governor Wes Moore.

Students engaged with powerhouse journalists in a media panel hosted by board member Susanna Quinn—featuring Andrea Mitchell, Jennifer Griffin, Jim Sciutto, and Nancy Cordes.

To round out the week, SPSers cheered on the Nationals and enjoyed fireworks, then celebrated the 4th of July with team competitions and a festive country carnival

Half way through SPS—let’s make it count!