Tenley: The forgotten campus

March 16, 5:10 PMAmerican University ExaminerShannon Griffin

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For those of you who have toured American University, you’ve seen the nice, large campus around Ward Circle.  But there’s another campus that’s still a mystery to most seniors at AU.  It’s called Tenley.  Every fall semester around 100-150 freshmen are accepted to AU and enrolled on the Tenley Campus.  They’re part of the Washington Mentorship Program –a one-semester program geared toward giving incoming college students an inside look at the “Real world.”

Even though you receive credits that can be put toward your degree at AU, the curriculum is very different.  Students take Cross-Cultural Communications and either U.S. Politics or Justice.  All of these courses are worth three credits, like the classes on Main.  However, the Mentorship classes only meet once a week on camps; the other day they have a fieldtrip around D.C.  So, you get to learn about something one day and then go see it the next.  Last semester these fieldtrips included such places as the U.S. Supreme Court, the Peace Corps, the FDR Memorial, USAID, and many others.  Then, all freshmen take two extra classes.  One is required to be College Writing, but the other you choose so long as it fits your schedule.

However, the field trips and lectures aren’t what makes the Mentorship students most different from those enrolled regularly at AU.  The main difference is that two days a week (for eight hours a day) students are required to have an internship.  Since D.C. is run off of interns, it’s really easy to find one, and, normally, students at AU can’t have internships until their sophomore year.  Last semester internships ranged from the Swedish-American Chambers of Commerce to Congress and the Police Foundation.  Not only did this help you network, it also could help you decide on a career.

There is one more kind of student housed on Tenley Campus; these are the Semester students.  They mostly consist of foreign graduate students wanting to study in the U.S. for a semester.  They also take two classes directed toward their major and have an internship twice a week.

Now that you know about what you study on Tenley, let’s talk about the physical campus.  Tenley is made up of four buildings: Congressional, Capital, Federal, and Dunblane.  Dunblane is where all the classes are held and the professors’ officers are.  There’s nothing really special to be found there.  Congressional, Capital, and Federal are the dorms.  Capital houses the Semester students, so it’s obvious that it’s going to be all-around nicer that the others.  Congressional is most like the dorms you find on Main, except the rooms are triples instead of doubles.  And, Federal is my personal favorite dorm building.  The top two floors are used for rooms, and these are twice as big as any on Main.  On the bottom floor there are the washers, dryers, lounge, computer lab, study room, and cafeteria.

There is a rumor on Main that Tenley has an amazing cafeteria.  Of course, to the Tenley residence, the TDR (Terrace Dining Room) is the best cafeteria on campus.  I guess the grass is always greener on the other side.  For lunch at TC (Tenley Café) there is either Asian or Italian stir fry.  Dinner is the exact same as TDR, except it is a smaller collection.  You can pass on dinner, but if you’re ever in the neighborhood for lunch, I highly recommend it.

So next time you’re going to tour AU or are on your way to the metro, get off the bus and take a quick look around Tenley, at least go have lunch.  Or, if you feel like it, there’s normally a couple of Semester students playing soccer on the field separating Congressional and Federal; ask if you can join in.  Not only will you make a couple of new friends, but you’ll also get to hear about Tenley from an insider’s point of view.

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