Recounting AHS’s D.C. trip

2–3 minutes

Not-attending the inauguration and the volatility of an itinerary

Staff Writer

From January 18th through the 22nd, a group of sophomores and one senior, chaperoned by English 9 and 10H teacher Mr. Howard, visited Washington D.C., touring memorials, museums, and national monuments to experience the nation’s capital around the 2025 Presidential Inauguration.

Ten students from AHS and seventeen from Antioch Community High School in Antioch, Illinois, made up the traveling group. The first day of the trip, students visited the National Mall’s World War II and 9/11 Pentagon memorials, accompanied by a tour guide who explained the significance of the respective events as well as the history behind the memorials.

The rest of the trip was much of the same, touring grand architecture while learning about the history behind it. These stops included the National Archives, Capitol building, Lincoln Memorial, Arlington Cemetery, Washington Monument, and Mount Vernon. More recreationally, students visited a bowling alley, shopped at the Fashion Centre at Pentagon City, toured the National Mall and its Smithsonian museums, and attended a private viewing event to watch the inauguration.

Shourya Premkumar (10) said, “My favorite moment was exploring the government buildings around the city, but my least favorite was walking through the heavy snow. I also felt underwhelmed by the inauguration because it had been moved indoors.”

The tour group had initially planned to attend the inauguration in-person, but the event had been moved to the Capitol Rotunda due to freezing temperatures and temperamental winds. The event was instead largely reserved for dignitaries, politicians, and relatives of the elected officials. Pivoting, the tour guide arranged for a viewing party in the Westfields Marriott Washington Dulles Hotel. The watch party was held in a conference room, filled with other student groups and hotel guests alike, and the duration of President Trump’s thirty minute speech was accompanied by standing ovations from some and tears from others.

There was something about being surrounded by such staunchly opposite perspectives that made the moment feel historic for attendees, cathartic to the extent that such divisiveness could exist even in the confines of this about 500-person-capacity ballroom.

About the schedule change, Adhiraj Mann (10) said, “When I heard that we weren’t going to go, I felt pretty disappointed. The watch party was better than I expected though, and I found it interesting to see so many contrasting emotions all in the same room.”

Throughout the trip, this changing of plans was in fact, a constant, in part due to weather restrictions and the president touring some of the locations on the itinerary. In spite of this, Ojas Kaushik (10) shared, “It was a group of friends that I knew so well. It was great to see all of the history, but it wasn’t the location that made it valuable as much as the people.”