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Student trip to D.C. planned
Submitted photo
A group of Quincy students pose for a picture after arriving in Washington, D.C., last year.
Last year, nine sixth- and seventh-grade students traveled to the ‘other Washington’ with teacher Andy Ornelas to experience the history and culture of our nation’s capital.
Now Ornelas is planning to conduct a similar trip next spring.
“Travel is always an adventure,” said Ornelas, who is a sixth-grade teacher at Monument Elementary School.
The group who went in 2009 included Shelby Bassett, Mireya Camacho, Destiny Escure, Ryan Lubach, Ariana Sanchez, Jessica Sandoval, Ashley Thaemert and Blake VanDiest, along with adult chaperones.
The trip was sponsored and put together by Smithsonian Student Travel, with Ornelas acting as the representative. Ornelas decided that this was a good trip for the kids because they could experience history and because D.C. is a great place.
“In this day and age, education has many challenges in meeting the needs of students,” Ornelas said. “Enrichments such as this are not common in a district this size, so we feel that this is a great way to enrich students in history and social studies through travel. This trip was a good way to push them and give them a good opportunity.”
The trip was funded individually by the children and their parents. Ornelas said that they had some fund-raisers, but that money was used for little things on the trip. While they were at the capitol, the group explored the mall where the Capitol building, Washington Monument, Reflection Pool and the Lincoln Memorial are located. The children and chaperones also toured the Smithsonian and other museums that surround the mall.The group also traveled to Mount Vernon, George Washington’s adult home, and to Arlington National Cemetery.
“You can look at as many pictures (of Arlington) as you want, but it’s not the same,” said Ryan Lubach, 13. “It was just a great experience. In this town we don’t have those experiences too often.”
“The feeling and aura of being there is amazing,” said Tricia Lubach, Ryan’s mother. “Everyone is so respectful, especially the kids.”
The group also had the opportunity to go to the historic town of Williamsburg, Va. The town is made to seem like a town that would have been around when the nation was founded.
“A big thing of Williamsburg is that the shops had crafts that were made the way they did it 200 years ago,” Ornelas said. “There was a silversmith and a wig shop. We also saw a life-sized model of Jamestown with two full-size ships.”
Tricia Lubach said that the town had two villages, an American Indian village and Pilgrim village, so it gave both perspectives on how people lived back then.
“My favorite part of the trip was being in a place where history took place, where the nation was founded and where laws are made. It made history come alive,” she said. “We visited the White House and there was a protest out front. We got to see American principles in action.”
Ornelas said there is still room on the next trip for more students if they would like to go. Anyone interested in going or helping to sponsor the program may call him at 787-3973.
