Kerry Washington didn’t expect to play a frog in a GW student musical her junior year. And she didn’t expect to speak to about 7,000 graduates Sunday on a misty National Mall, perched in front of a scaffolded Washington Monument.

Video by Zach Montellaro and Diana Marinaccio.

In the shadow of the towering Iwo Jima Memorial, graduates of GW’s Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps still got a lesson in humility.

Video by Zach Montellaro.

Slightly more than half of the Class of 2013 donated back to the University this year – a record total – though the amount fundraised lagged several thousand dollars behind last year’s graduating class.

One of D.C.’s up-and-coming neighborhoods, Navy Yard, offers a close commute, a cheap rent and something to do nearby after work. Bursts of recent graduates have moved there in recent years, helping to revitalize the area.

During pre-finals weekend, students waited in long lines for a chance to cuddle and play with dogs that two local adoption agencies – Lost Dog & Cat Rescue Foundation and City Dogs Rescue – brought to campus.

The fourth annual GW Women in Business Spring Conference held workshops in personal branding and featured keynote addresses from the president of Equinox fitness company and the former editor of Cosmopolitan magazine.

The National Mall became the grounds Saturday for International Pillow Fight Day, as hundreds of people in cities around the world smacked each other with pillows.

The SNAP challenge – short for the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program – seeks to raise awareness of challenges faced by families who depend on a federal food stamp program.

The annual battle of high notes, harmonies and vocal percussion picked up Wednesday in Lisner Auditorium as campus a capella groups competed to see which was the best of the best.

Dozens of students took a moment of silence at a candlelight vigil Thursday in University Yard, paying tribute to the victims of the Boston marathon bombings.