Getting Started
Mrs. O'Day and I at Point du Hoc
My teacher, Mrs. O'Day, in our AP World History class mentioned to us a trip hosted by National History Day. She said that the trip was about the Normandy Invasion and as students we could go to France for free. Now hearing that we could travel to a country most of us dreamed of seeing, and at no cost, was a remarkable opportunity. So later that night, I googled the Institute to find out more about it. The message of the program really stood out to me, being a history freak, I was intrigued by the amount of information I would gain and also the extremely special opportunity this was. Due to the amount of students interested in the trip, Mrs. O'Day told us to write an essay about why we should be picked. She made it anonymous and assigned us raffle ticket numbers so the judging would not be biased. She then put the top three students on the board, and my number was marked for number one. I was so excited that I was picked, but I could not imagine how much this trip would affect me in the future.
On to D.C.
After months of reading and posting analytic responses over email, all the Normandy Scholars would converge in Washington D.C. and attend lectures at George Washington University before heading off to France. Meeting all the students and also getting to experience Washington D.C. again was a great way to start off the Institute. I learned a lot from all the lectures and some of the topics, such as espionage during the war, included things I had never heard of before. Washington was certainly an experience, the highlight of the trip was probably the visit to the French Ambassador's residence where we met his wife. That was a day that I will not soon forget.
French Ambassador's Residence
Our Trip to France
This was it, the moment we had spent months preparing for. Traveling to France was a dream come true, but more importantly, we had an important task to accomplish. Since I have traveled internationally before, the flight did not frighten me, but other some other students had never been on an airplane before! This trip was certainly filled with new experiences. When we got to France, we took a bus to Bayeux, which is located in Normandy, France or the northern part of the country. Here the essence of the Normandy Invasion is still strong in the memory of the french natives. We visited many historical sites having to do with WWII and Operation Overlord, and we also got to see plenty of museums. Actually standing where these events took place, events that we had read about in books, really made the war and our soldier's story come alive.