Forge D.C. Was A Hit, Just Ask Claire!

You heard from me last Wednesday as we were awaiting the arrival of almost thirty Forge Fellows for the start of “Forge DC: The Nation’s Capital.” Forge D.C. is a new program this year, a key piece of the unprecedented mentoring program that Forge Fellows experience for twelve very formative months.

I hope you were able to follow along with us on social media and even join one of our LIVE broadcasts on Facebook from places like the Lincoln Memorial, our after-hours special tour of the Capitol, our behind-the-scenes tour of Museum of The Bible, and more.

I could recap the week for you myself, but I could never do it the justice that one of our Forge Fellows – Claire Dyson – did. Claire, who hails from Northeast Ohio, published the following on her Facebook after attending Forge D.C. We hope that you will be as encouraged by these beautiful reflections as our staff and volunteers were!

Here’s what Claire had to say about Forge D.C. and Forge Leadership Network:

“The Forge Leadership Network is more than just an organization striving to build up young people into the nation’s next passionate and determined conservative leaders. It is more than just a network of great minds. It is more than a community of like-minded Christians. Forge is a family brought together by love of God, neighbor, and country, with a burning desire to preserve and protect our God-given rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

As a Forge Fellow selected from those who attended the Forge Summit last July, I was privileged to start the year with the Forge Leadership Network in our nation’s capital in Washington, D.C. As usual with Forge, it was a life changing experience.

The week started out on Wednesday with a dinner and a couple of fantastic talks by Michael Hendrix and Paul Teller regarding the business of politics, and some sage advice on networking and staying true to our values, respectively. The night ended with a tour of the National Mall where we learned some valuable lessons from history with a short speech at each memorial or monument by one of the Forge leaders or invited speakers.

On Thursday we headed over to the Heritage Foundation where we were briefed on the Affordable Care Act, how budget reconciliation works, religious liberty, and the First Principles of our country. From there we went to the Hill to hear from Congressmen Davidson, Jordan, Meadows, and Brat who all shared a unified message of the importance of staying humble, faithful, connected, and grounded, as well as treating everybody with character and cheerfulness. Congressman Davidson later gave us a personal after-hours tour of the Capitol, which was just incredible.

Friday morning found us at Alliance Defending Freedom to hear from several inspirational speakers including Alison Howard, Kerri Kupec, Andrew Johnson, and Jordan Lorence. Then we stood in front of the Supreme Court for a briefing on several term cases by Tiffany Bates. The afternoon ended with an amazing behind-the-scenes hard hat tour of the Museum of the Bible. We [started the evening with a reception at ERLC’s Leland House] and then split off into groups to have dinner with various experts on foreign affairs, media, and other subjects. To top off the day, we had a wonderful night of ice skating in the Smithsonian Sculpture Garden that was absolutely picturesque.

The week ended on Saturday with a talk on conservative futurism by Nathan Hitchen, and a sobering tour of the Holocaust Memorial Museum.

The Forge Leadership Network is dedicated to training us young people how to be servant leaders devoted to Christ and to preserving and growing our great nation. There aren’t too many groups out there that take the time to pray before each meal, but Forge does. There aren’t too many leaders out there who will publicly acknowledge [where they’ve fallen short], and then thank the person who called them out on it, but Adam Josefczyk and Justin Powell do. There aren’t too many organizations out there that take the time to find and develop great leaders and the only return they ask is for us to be conscientious leaders in our communities, but Forge does. There aren’t too many people out there who not only challenge us to be servant leaders but who also inspire us by their own examples of servant leadership, but all the Forge leaders do. There aren’t too many people out there that I will happily spend the rest of my life developing friendships with, but I will do so with the people from the Forge Leadership Network.

I wish to thank everyone who makes Forge possible, especially [staff and volunteers] and everyone else who put any amount of time, energy, and/or money into the organization.

I urge all my conservative friends to join me in this great movement, and apply for the Forge Summit this summer. I can guarantee that it will be exhausting and that it will challenge you in ways you could have never expected, but I can also guarantee that it will inspire, fortify, and amaze you unlike anything else has before.