Emily Allen
Published: February 11, 2008
Dubuque - Nicole Hayden, a junior at Loras College, was one of millions who gathered in Washington D.C. on January 20, 2009.
“I didn’t have a view of Obama when he was speaking but I could hear the word. I couldn’t see everybody that was sitting up there, but I knew what was going on and I was surrounded by literally two million people all there for the same reason,” says Hayden.
Hayden and her twenty-four J-Term classmates, gathered to witness the Presidential Inauguration, but for her it was not just any inauguration.
“I worked on the Obama campaign for half a semester, being able to finish that process and see it actually happen, and seeing the inauguration was just something that I couldn’t imagine missing out on,” she says.
While Hayden and her classmates were in Washington D.C., other J-Term students were 4,000 miles away in Germany. There, Loras College senior, Scott Frank was focusing on a dimmer past.
“The holocaust has always sparked my interest. It’s just one of those things that you talk about and you are just like ‘how could this happen’,” says Frank.
Frank, along with twelve other Loras students, were documenting the holocaust and remembering the past.
“It’s just one of those things where if I could understand it better I think I could teach my students to understand it better and therefore everyone can have a better comprehension of it,” says Frank, who is a history major.
Frank plans on sharing his experience with future and Hayden plans on sharing her story as well.
“I look forward to telling my kids and grandkids about it. I think that’s probably when it’s going to be most exciting to me,” says Hayden.
For both Hayden and Frank, their J-Terms were not just a trip or a moment in history, but an opportunity that changed their lives.
“When this hard stuff came it hit us in ways that we couldn’t have expected and I think we’re all better for it,” says Frank.
To learn more about all of the different courses, you can attend the J-Term showcase during Common Time on February 18.
Emily Allen can be reached at emily.allen@loras.edu
