Many students from Advanced Placement United States History departed Jan.19 on a trip to Washington D.C. to visit different historical sites and events. Over the course of their weekend, the students visited memorials, participated in the Women’s March and attended the presidential inauguration.

Sam Korn, a junior in AP U.S History, signed up for the trip about a year in advance. Even though he didn’t know who he would see at the inauguration, he still believed it was an important trip to attend.

“I went on this trip because I knew that no matter who was being elected, I was going to be seeing something historic,” Korn said. “I thought it was cool to see the democratic process in action. Everyone felt empowered when we were there.”

Another junior, Pardes Lyons-Warren, attended the Women’s March with about half of the students who went on the trip. This was her favorite part of the trip because she got to march for something that she cared passionately about.

“There were people everywhere [at the Women’s March],” Lyons-Warren said. It was so packed in there, and we ended up just marching around D.C.”

Originally, the march wasn’t on the list of places that the students would be attending.  The initial schedule had the class visiting the Holocaust Museum instead of the march.

“A couple other girls and I went and asked Mr. Saxton and Mr. Hill to [talk] to the World Science people if we could leave the scheduled trip and go to the march,” Lyons-Warren said. “That was a couple weeks before the trip.”

While Korn had been in D.C. before, this time was special for him. He knew he was going to able to witness meaningful events and visit unique places.

“I was participating in something that was historic,” Korn said. “This was a once in a lifetime trip and something that I could tell my grandchildren.”