Day 4 BLOG: Senior Trip to Washington D.C.

The Senior Trip is a long-standing and capstone experience at Great Hearts Academies. Students explore together their heritage contained in great art and architecture, scientific and technological marvels, religious, political and cultural achievements in and around the Federal City, Washington, D.C. and in Virginia. Students have a chance to visit the sites and explore the ideas that contributed to the American Founding. It is an exercise in cultivated leisure, a kind for which they have been uniquely prepared. Students engage in mutual reflections on profound things, ideas and reality come together, and as a consequence they learn more deeply Aristotle’s teaching on friendship as shared experiences.

Day 4 Blog
submitted by Maggie Wright
Glendale Preparatory Senior

This morning we got to make our way to the Capitol Building where we were given extended tours. We were able to see the old Supreme Court where the first five Supreme Court justices worked. We also saw the rotunda which was full of so many statues and pieces of art. At the very top, we got to see the Apotheosis of George Washington. Also on our tour, we saw the old House of Representatives and Senate which were very ornate and at one point held some very famous people in American history.

Then we continued on to the Library of Congress which is amazing! This was one of my favorite parts of the tour. The entire ceiling is beautiful and it’s full of so many books. It also houses a collection of books owned by Thomas Jefferson that he donated to the library.

For the rest of the afternoon, we all got to explore the rest of the Smithsonian Museums. My group went to the Botanical Gardens, Air and Space, and American History Museums. Each one of the Smithsonian Museums has so many things to see and learn from that it’s possible to spend an entire day in every one, so we only saw bits and pieces; but all of them are spectacular.

To end our last night in DC, we went to see Into the Woods at Ford’s Theatre. All of the performers were amazing and their singing was perfect. It was such an awesome way to end the night.

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