Sleeping Giant Middle School Eighth Grade American History Students are planning a trip to D.C. thanks to Brenda Speake

Will spend five days with the Close Up Foundation in a living classroom and connect with History.

Sleeping Giant Middle School Eighth Grade History Students (L-R) Erik Dettori, Justin Earl, Max Olsen, and Nola Hondorf with their American History teacher Brenda Speake at SGMS in Livingston.

By: Jeff Schlapp

When I was in eighth grade my junior high school took a trip to Washington D.C. which I wasn’t invited to be part of because, well, it was for the smart kids. So I waited about 30 years before making a trip out east. Since then I have probably been 15 times to our country's capital. I can never spend enough time in D.C.

For Sleeping Giant Middle School eighth-grade student Max Olsen, the chance to be part of a group of students leaving Livingston in April to spend a week learning about American History was special for a couple of reasons. First, Max loves studying history and second, he was born in D.C. and spent the first five years of his life where he lived on Capital Hill with his parents who were employed in the Government (he even got a glimpse of the Oval Office).

For 17 other SGMS eighth graders, the trip is the chance to get a first-hand and up-close look at what they have studied in Brenda Speake’s American History Class.

I met four of the students on Thursday at SGMS along with Becky Ayler the school Principal and Brenda Speake to talk about the upcoming trip.