Havre students learn in D.C.

Washington D.C. feels a world away from Havre, Montana, but that did not stop Havre High CloseUp from taking eight Havre High School students to the nation's capital in October.

One of those students was senior Dartanion Kaftan, who got to experience the nation's capital for the first time. 

"It was one of the best experiences I've ever had," Kaftan said. "It's a whole new world out there. We did a lot of things that were pretty exciting and we talked to a lot of important people."

Havre High CloseUp is a non-profit education organization that takes HHS students to the nation's capital every few years to participate in civic-leadership workshops as well as explore the nation's capital. 

The other Havre High seniors who traveled this year were Adam Ketchum, Caleb Spangler, Mariss Ratliff, Theron Peterson, P.J. Morsette, Sadie Filius and Claudia Ucin, an exchange student from Basque Country, Spain.

"The CloseUp program, their goal is to inspire, inform and empower," CloseUp advisor Lindsey Ratliff said. 

The group arrived in Washington0, Oct. 17 after an all-night flight. On their first night in D.C, the group visited the Holocaust Memorial Museum. The group then returned to the hotel where HHS students met students from two Alaska schools visiting that week. They had their first civic exercise that night with a mock debate. 

Through the rest of the week, the students visited several landmarks and discussed their importance. Oct. 18, they visited the Jefferson Memorial and the Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial and compared the presidents' scope of government. They also visited the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial and the Smithsonian Museum that day. 

Oct. 19, Kaftan got to visit what turned out to be his favorite landmarks of the trip. First, the HHS students visited the war memorials to discuss sacrifice and serving one's country and then they then visited the Lincoln Memorial.

"The Lincoln Memorial is one of the staple landmarks when people think of America," Kaftan said. "The Vietnam Memorial was very somber. It was eye-opening in a way. I'm glad I stopped by there and, even though the Korean Memorial was under construction, it was cool to see that."

Havre High CloseUp visited Capitol Hill Oct. 20 and got the chance to meet Montana's representatives in the federal government. They got to meet Sen. Steve Daines, who gave them an informal tour of the capitol. While at the Capitol, the HHS students also got the chance to meet and speak to Sen. Jon Tester and Rep. Matt Rosendale.

After meeting the people who represent him in Washington, Kaftan said, he has been inspired to get more involved as a constituent. 

"It's encouraged me to go out of my way to write or email to make change," Kaftan said. 

When they were not visiting D.C. landmarks or the capitol, the HHS students were participating in workshops through the course of the week. One workshop that Kaftan participated in was debating the merits of a hypothetical bill that would raise the minimum wage. The group then chose one three main political values which were liberty, justice and equality and see what side of the bill they came on. 

"One of the main goals of the workshops was to build our political efficacy and our ability to engage and understand things in the world of politics," Kaftan said. 

That Friday morning, Oct. 22, the group's trip to Washington came to an end as they took a bus to New York City for the next two days of their trip. Unlike the calm atmosphere of Washington, the fast-paced Big Apple was a new experience for the small-town kids. 

"New York is a whole different animal. I've never seen so many people just walking down the street," Kaftan said. "I think even just shopping and going to places to eat was crazy because every place was packed. It felt rushed and overwhelming."

Over the next two days, the HHS students visited several NYC landmarks such as Central Park, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the 9/11 Memorial, Brooklyn Bridge, Rockefeller Plaza and the Statue of Liberty while continuing to use the visits as a jumping off point for civic discussions. They also enjoyed the cultural scene as they went to Broadway and attended a theatrical production of "Aladdin." 

The group returned to Havre Oct. 24.

The trip to Washington was the sixth for Havre High CloseUp and they plan on their next trip coming in the spring of 2023. Before then, Ratliff and Havre High CloseUp will fundraise to make their next trip a reality.