This article is from the 2024–2025 Dean's Report.
Moving to a new home is often a time of transition: looking back on all the ways one has grown in a particular space, while looking ahead to exciting possibilities. This past summer marked such a milestone for the School of Continuing Studies (SCS). After 13 formative years at 640 Massachusetts Ave. NW—its first downtown location—the School officially moved to 111 Massachusetts Ave. NW, joining Georgetown’s growing Capitol Campus.
For the first time, SCS is housed with other Georgetown programs and schools, including the Earth Commons Institute, Capitol Applied Learning Labs, the McDonough School of Business, the Berkley School of Nursing, and the School of Health. A momentous new era for SCS, the move to Capitol Campus presents vast opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration and community-building, deepening Georgetown’s impact in the heart of the nation’s capital.
“Almost all the schools of the university have footprints in this building, so we are excited about having people from different disciplines, different fields next to one another,” said Interim President Robert Groves during the building’s official ribbon-cutting ceremony last October; D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, as well as other senior municipal and university leaders, also attended. “[It’s about enabling] those chance encounters that bring two minds together and invent new human knowledge that they never would have created by themselves.”
Farewell to SCS’s First Home Downtown
It was a busy summer preparing for the move, but the community also took time to pause and reflect on the profound ways that 640 Mass. shaped SCS bothas a school and as a community. To this day, many longtime SCS faculty and staff recall the years before the building opened in 2013. Back then, the School had no centralized home, since students, faculty, and staff were dispersed throughout various locations: some in the former M Street offices, some on the Hilltop, and some even as far away as Clarendon, Virginia. As such, communal gatherings were limited, and members were only able to connect as a group for select events, such as Commencement or holiday parties.
The 640 Mass. building was groundbreaking because it enabled SCS staff, faculty, and students to teach, learn, and make connections all under one roof, ushering in a period of tremendous growth for the School. In a little over a decade, SCS surpassed
one milestone after another:
- The student body doubled from roughly 2,000 degree students to almost 4,000 each year;
- The number of degree alumni grew to more than 10,000;
- Nearly 15 new degree programs were launched, for a total of 20 (and counting), as well as dozens of new professional certificate programs;
- In 2015, SCS was the first Georgetown school to build an infrastructure to design and launch online programs;
- SCS built a more faculty-centric culture with full-time faculty leading degree programs and designing curricula for pre-college and executive audiences, drawing on the expertise of about 1,000 professionals from across sectors serving as adjunct faculty each year;
- SCS students, faculty, and alumni won numerous prestigious awards, industry competitions, and grants, such as Fulbright Scholarships.
The SCS community celebrated these accomplishments and more during the “Farewell to 640” celebration in July. Joined by Interim President Groves and Interim Provost Soyica Colbert, more than 150 students, faculty, staff, and alumni gathered one last time in the building’s spacious Atrium, reconnecting and reminiscing over light bites and drinks. In her closing remarks, Dean Kelly Otter affirmed the indelible spirit of community that SCS was able to foster.
“This building didn’t just house our work; it shaped our spirit. It gave us a place to belong, and gave us the company of each other,” she said. “Even in the challenging times—especially during the pandemic when the lights were out and the hallways were quiet, our commitment never dimmed. We kept showing up—for our students, for each other, and for the mission we believe in.”
Driving the Capitol Campus Forward
With the move to the Capitol Campus official as of last August, SCS is embracing a new era of impact. No stranger to downtown, the School has a unique opportunity to leverage its prior learnings and experiences to shape the development of the Capitol Campus—Georgetown’s expanding campus that also encompasses the Georgetown University Law School and the McCourt School of Public Policy.
Already, a crucial advantage to the Capitol Campus is evident: its proximity to other Georgetown schools and programs. In a matter of weeks, as SCS and fellow Georgetown colleagues and students have slowly settled in, 111 Mass. has come to life with activity: informal co-curricular and social events for students; faculty-led lectures and discussion panels; and open houses and recruitment events welcoming prospective students.
“With the move, Georgetown SCS, our faculty, and students are fully integrated into the Georgetown downtown community,” said Wendy Zajack, Ph.D., faculty director and associate professor of the practice for the master’s programs in both Integrated Marketing Communications and Design Management & Communications. “Such a huge part of university life is the interactions between multiple disciplines, industries, and people, and this new space gives us the space to gather, reflect, and build a strong, connected, thriving campus together.”
Although it is still early days, SCS’s new home is already sparking unexpected connections, and SCS has a critical role to play in co-creating the future of the Capitol Campus.
“As we join forces with other Georgetown initiatives and schools, we have a unique opportunity: to model what it looks like when collaboration, innovation, and compassion come together,” Otter said at the Farewell to 640 Mass. celebration. “We’re not just participating in the Capitol Campus—we’re helping define it.