Social Studies teacher Lisa Herzig will be taking a group of students to see the inauguration of the 45th president in January 2017. Students currently in US History or who have taken the class previously are eligible for the week-long trip to Washington, DC.  

The group will fly to the nation’s capital on Monday, January 16 and fly home on Sunday, January 22. This will cause participants to miss the scheduled final exam week. As a result, teachers will be asked to arrange for students to either take final exams in advance or take them when the group returns.

According to Herzig, the group “will be going with CloseUp.org,” which is a “non-profit, non-partisan civic education organization” founded over 40 years ago. “It is a well-established and educational minded trip,” explained Herzig.

An all-inclusive student fee of $2,738 is required. The fee covers program tuition and instruction, academic materials, hotel accommodations, meals, adult supervision and security, entrance fees, transportation, and roundtrip airfares to and from SFO.

In addition to watching the swearing-in of the next US president, the group will visit the Smithsonian Institute museums, see Congress, and meet California’s local Congressman, Mark DeSaulnier. “It is always a powerful experience to visit our nation’s capital,” said Herzig. “It builds good citizens and can inform our students on what it means to be a participant in our democracy.”

According to Herzig, the idea for the trip came from students that eat lunch in her room regularly, including juniors Stephanie Alderete, Cathy Tang, Claire Nelson, and Emilie Naughten. “I researched it and planned it from there,” said Herzig.

This will not be the first inauguration for Herzig. In 2005, she traveled to DC with several students from El Camino High School of South San Francisco to see the 2nd George W. Bush inauguration.