As the sun rose above Emerson on Monday, June 12 and most students were just getting out of bed, the sophomore and junior classes were already on a bus making their way to Philadelphia. 

Accompanied by their advisors Mr. Hedges and Mrs. Yavorski for the Sophomores, and Ms. Vietri and Mr. Compagnone for the Juniors, as well as other teachers and administrators for chaperones, the two classes had a large agenda for the day. 

Their day started early by having to be at the school by 6:45 am to be on the buses and leaving the school at 7 am. The trip to Philadelphia was around two and a half hours with students arriving there at about 9:30 am. 

Typically, the Philadelphia field trip is only for the sophomores but this year it was extended to the juniors as well. 

“We decided halfway through the year to include the junior class. We had an advisor meeting and realized that the juniors had never been on the trip and thought they should join us,” said Sophomore Class Advisor Mr. Hedges. 

The tour included seeing the historical landmarks throughout Philadelphia including the original President’s house, where Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, the First and Second Banks of the United States, and Benjamin Franklin’s grave. 

The sophomores and juniors got to explore the area of Philadelphia after all of the tours were over. They were able to revisit some of the nearby landmarks as well as get to go to the gift shop. 

Following that, the trip headed over to the US Mint to look throughout the building and see the process. On the top floor, it included some fun activities for the students including designing your own coin and trivia facts for them to guess. It offered information about how the place got started. 

The students got to see a lot of different areas of Philadelphia including the Travel Reading Market where they got to explore different stands for lunch and the steps where the scenes from the movie Rocky were filmed. 

“My favorite part of the trip was the tour around Philadelphia because I liked seeing different historical buildings and how people interact around Philadelphia. I would’ve liked to explore the places that Benjamin Franklin had been if we had more time,” said Sophomore Briona Grier.