The Close-Up Foundation hosts a trip away from home to meet new people and learn more about the country, politics, and community every year. Through Close-Up, students at Chamblee embarked on a 6-day trip to Washington D.C. and earned the chance to meet new friends interested in politics too. This year from Chamblee High School, Mr. Brian Ely took two students to DC: Diego Vasquez and Devin Suggs. These two students had life-changing experiences and made great memories to tell their friends and family about. The Close-Up Program was created in 1971 and has happened almost every year since. The program is designed to help many students learn more about history and government. The students attended a variety of museums, libraries, and workshops. 

“The students participated in many different workshops. They went to Ford Theater and the Capitol. We saw Congress and saw the Senate debate in session. We also went to see the American Indian Museum and the Library of Congress,” said Brian Ely, an English teacher at Chamblee.

Because this year is an inaugural year, the opportunity to go on the Close-Up trip was an especially cool experience. Because it’s an inaugural year, students actually stay an extra day; There are many more tour options as well as many involvements at the grassroots level. However, due to the cold, some of the events had to be adjusted.

“Because it was so cold in D.C., we watched via TV,” said Diego Vasquez (‘26).

For the students and teachers, the best part about the Close-Up trip was the people they met along the way. 

“My favorite memory is the people that I met. They were very different, a lot of them were midwesterners and Montanans,” said Vasquez.

Many students and teachers go on trips such as these unknowing of the new people they will meet and come out with great friends with whom they share many similarities. 

“I met a bunch of teachers from all over the country, some not too far from Chamblee. Some I already knew because I have a pretty good network of teachers,” said Ely.

Teachers also participated in workshops and site visits that helped their knowledge of history and government even more. They went to many workshops this year one of them was The Lincoln’s Assassins Trail, where the educators retraced the steps of John Wilkes Booth after the assassination. 

“We go to different sites that John Wilkes Booth visited on his attempted escape from D.C.,” said Ely.

This year’s Close-Up experience was a good reminder of the importance of history and political education for those who attended. From seeing congressional debates to standing in front of the nation’s founding documents, the students and teachers all learned something new on the trip and left D.C. with a deeper understanding of American democracy. As their first trip back since the pandemic, this visit was a unique experience and Chamblee hopes to continue this tradition of sending students and teachers every January. We tried to get in contact with Devin Suggs, a junior at Chamblee High School to hear about his experiences on the trip, but were unfortunately unable to get in contact with him.