Students interested in studying American government have an opportunity next summer to tour the places where our political systems were refined while earning college credit, thanks to the realization of a plan the Board of Trustees approved in 2008.
Monte Freidig, Santa Rosa Junior College political science instructor, arranged a trip to Washington, D.C. so students can see the places and documents that formed our government. Freidig said he got the idea for the program while teaching SRJC students on a Study Abroad program in Paris.
“I am spending most of my life teaching American students about American history, and I can take them to France, they can see Louis the XIV’s place, but not George Washington’s. They can see the Elysee Palace, but not the White House, they can see the French assembly, but not Congress,” Freidig said.
Freidig originally got board approval for the plan to take students abroad without leaving the country in 2008. The plan was to take the inaugural trip in the Summer of 2009, but the recession forced the college to rethink the Study Abroad programs, which received cuts. The Washington trip was shelved until this year.
Education First Tours, a Boston company that handles the largest number of study abroad programs throughout the U.S., is taking care of the logistics of the tour. The cost of the trip, which includes round-trip airfare and accommodations in D.C., is $2,820 per student, or $2,620 with an early bird discount. Tours of historical sites in Washington as well Williamsburg, Philadelphia and Arlington Cemetery will be included.
Freidig said the SRJC Foundation would provide some scholarship money for the trip. Students can arrange crowd funding through the EF Tours website. EF Tours is also offering payment plans to spread the cost of the trip out over several months.
SRJC student Colton Silvers plans to make the trip. “Learning about that history, especially U.S. Constitutional history, while also being surrounded by the physical places where these events occurred… you can hear [about] that from a teacher or read it in a textbook,” Silvers said. “When you are actually in the room that it happened… there’s definitely a spiritual aspect to it.”
Silvers said instructor Freidig is passionate about American government and he involves his entire life in politics.
Freidig has arranged for the students to take a tour of the White House while in D.C. and timed the trip to coincide with Congress and the Supreme Court in session. The trip will last nine days from June 17 to June 25, 2016. Interested students can see the full itinerary and sign up to join on the EF Tours website at www.efcollegestudytours.com/professors-trip/1721485pd or can contact Freidig at [email protected].
