Thirty-eight Porum High School Junior and Senior GEAR UP students recently visited the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum, created to remember and honor those impacted by the April 1995 Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building bombing. Students went on a ranger-guided tour where they learned about the significance of the memorial landscaping features, which were thoughtfully and definitively designed. During this time, students were encouraged to find the names of each person on the symbolic chairs in the Memorial Garden that represented those killed in the bombing. Students were encouraged to search for at least one person’s name and personal history while in the Museum.

Next, students toured the museum, which features a walking timeline detailing the day before, the day of, and the days, weeks, and months following April 19, 1995. Students were offered a hands-on learning experience with interactive displays and diagrams throughout the museum. The museum also featured televisions that play newsreels from that time and is home to more than one million documents, artifacts, and photographs, also used in the trials.

The entire experience moved the students. The students said it was very eye-opening to visit the Memorial and Museum in person and learn about the events that took place in person.

The field trip was sponsored by Eastern Oklahoma State College’s GEAR UP program. Eastern received a $17 million federal GEAR UP grant in 2017, and will serve more than 3,000 students in 39 area schools for seven years.