The View from the Street: Students at the Inauguration Speak

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The View from the Street: Students at the Inauguration Speak

Among the 2 million converging on Washington, DC, last Tuesday were more than their fair share of students. It was students, after all, who helped push Obama over the top, and it’s students, after all, who will inherit the future he creates. Here then, a collection of thoughts on that chilly Tuesday from some of the students who made the journey…

Abby Niezgoda (Emerson College, Boston, Mass.) on working for Emerson Channel News all weekend:

I mean, I would love to come down here just for fun but at the same time, I’m getting experience in a career that I want to go into. You could never pass that up, to be able to go into my first job and say, ‘Oh I covered the Inauguration as a sophomore in college, and I went to an African-American church ball, and I interviewed Jesse Jackson.’”

Jeff Young (also from Emerson College News) on the most significant experience for him the whole weekend:

I would say it’s probably running on absolutely no sleep.

Whitney Kennedy (Hampton University, Hampton, Va.) on why she decided to spend the day selling Obama gear:

It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and I just wanted to give people the opportunity to get memorabilia to help them remember this momentous occasion.

On her favorite t-shirt design, “Paint the White House Black”:

It’s about changing the landscape of America, and since Barack Obama has become President, he’s accomplished that. A lot of times in the past, ‘black’ was associated with a negative meaning, but now it’s positive.

Jill Teodosio (Catholic University of America, Washington, DC) on her favorite moment of the day:

Bush leaving on Executive One maybe?

On her celebrity sighting:

Well we were standing on the corner selling these shirts and I saw this guy wearing a chinchilla jacket, and you can’t just wear a chinchilla jacket without being super loaded-slash-famous. Soooo, we ran over there and it was Will.I.am…but he was just walking around without his entourage, like trying to have a normal moment, so we left him alone.

Daniel Chasen (Hillsdale College, Hillsdale, Mich.) on his favorite moment, watching the ceremony from near the Washington Monument:

Rick Warren’s prayer was absolutely amazing. It just summed up the unity…There was obviously people from all different kinds of faiths and even people without faith, but everybody, by the end of the prayer was in complete agreement with what he said.

Rebecca Hartman (Penn State University, Happy Valley, Penn.) on why she elected to go to the parade as opposed to any of the weekend’s other events: