Hello!

I am very excited to tell you that I have the opportunity to participate in Sojourn to the Past, which takes place on March 23-29. This is a unique educational program that was honored at the White House by former First Lady Michelle Obama with the nation’s highest honor for an after school program in the arts and humanities. But, I need your help.

The Sojourn program takes 8th grade students to the Mid-Atlantic region of the U.S. where we retrace the struggle for liberty. This journey is not a vacation. It is an academic seven-day experience where we will be traveling to various sites of historic events that shaped America’s future and culture. We will be studying on moving classroom buses and at memorials and historical sites as well as interacting with history scholars. We will visit Mount Vernon, the home of George Washington, where we will study the Founder’s vision for America. We will visit the Gettysburg Battlefield where we will learn about the complexities of the Civil War and the struggles that transpired there. In Washington, DC, we will visit various memorials of American heroes including Abraham Linconn, Thomas Jefferson, Vietnam veterans, and Martin Luther King, Jr. I believe this will help me be a better student and a better person.

Also, Minnijean Brown Trickey, of the Little Rock Nine, actually travels with us and participates daily in the journey. She shares stories of her experiences in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s and what education and perseverance means to her.

The main reason I want to go on this journey is because it will be such a unique and unforgettable experience! I will learn about the people, places, and events that shaped our country by actually being there. Rather than learning from a book authored by white men, I will have the once in a lifetime opportunity to truly understand history from multiple perspectives.

The tuition for the educational journey is $4,000, but my goal is $5,000 to help out my fellow students who can't afford the trip. This covers my airfare, the moving classroom meals and lodging, entrance to historical sites, books and curriculum, and security. But I cannot afford to pay the tuition myself. This is why I am asking for your help. No donation is too small and because Sojourn to the Past is a nonprofit organization, your donation is tax deductible. Your donation helps students like me be able to attend the journey. You can learn more about Sojourn by visiting the website at: www.sojurnproject.org