Local students will travel to presidential inauguration

BOLIVIA, NC (WWAY) — We are just three days from the presidential inauguration and a group of area students are traveling to Washington, DC, to see Donald Trump become the 45th President of the United States.

Nearly fifty Brunswick County Early College High School students will leave Thursday to spend a few days learning about our country’s history.

“It was about taking as many kids as I could, taking them from Brunswick County from a small area to a big city, bigger city, and experiencing that and see history and seeing something that they will tell their grandkids about,” Osborne said.

American History teacher Sarah Osborne says it’s an opportunity for her students to truly experience what they have learned inside the classroom.

“We have been learning about the course of American history from the beginning of our country and by the end of the semester up to modern day and so we have heard about all of these inaugurations in the past and we have heard about transitions of power and now we will be able to put a mark in history and be there in real life,” Junior Madeline Chandler said.

Osborne began planning the trip in 2015 and says they’ll witness the peaceful transfer of power from a two term president to a Washington outsider.

“As time narrow down I knew that either way it was going to be historic,” Chandler said. “I was either going to see first woman become inaugurated or the first TV reality star inaugurated.”

“Some are excited, some are scared, some didn’t like what Trump had to say and some did during the year,” student Parker Wingerd-Felan said. “It kind of a mixed bag of emotions heading into the next four years.”

As unusual as the election was, many are interested see the tone Trump sets in his inaugural address Friday.

“I’m just excited to see how the transition goes,” Wingerd-Felan said.

“I think that it will mostly be civil but we will just have to watch and see,” Chandler said.

“I hope that is a message of optimism, and it is a message of that is for all Americans that the next four years is going to be a time for hope, and change, and inclusion,” Osborne said.

The students plan to leave Thursday and will return Sunday. While they are in DC, the students plan to visit landmarks and the Smithsonian museums.