WASHINGTON, D.C. -- A group of students from St. Bonaventure University had a hand in history Saturday, taking part in the Women's March along with hundreds of thousands of others from across the nation.
They started at the Newseum, spirits high and voices raised. They then joined an estimated 500,000 men, women and children packed in the city's streets - a crows that shut down part of the city for a while.
“To see this, to feel this and to be a part of this is, is something like nothing else,” said St. Bonaventure student Jessica Laursen.
Laursen and her peers were on day eight Saturday of their adventure around Capitol Hill. While they watched Donald Trump take his oath of office Friday, the Women’s March on Washington was even more special.
“It’s just like a really fun environment," student Haylei John said. "Everybody is just really unified together,”
Fun,with a serious yet simple message - women’s rights matter.
“I think it’s really important that we all come together, especially with the divide the country is in now,” student Keegan Miller.
That's the exact lesson the group's mentors were hoping they’d learn.
“They’ve seen sort of the good and the bad," said Danette Brickman, chair of St. Bonaventure's political science department. “They’ve seen a peaceful transition of power, and they’ve seen how people aren’t happy with the transition of power and what they do to contract that.”
Saturday’s passionate yet peaceful demonstration serves as a lesson for generations to come.
“There’s a tendency in almost every movement is to think at a certain point that you’re done, because things are better,” said Kristan McMahon, who serves on the St. Bonaventure Board of Trustees. “What we need to make sure the younger generation realizes is that there is always room for improvement. There’s always a way to make things better.”
That's spark that’s been lit in these students and, perhaps, a nation.
“Standing amongst a ton of people who I know are supporting me and I’m supporting them, I am overcome with emotions,” Laursen said.
From here, the students will go back to school and monitor Trump’s first 100 days in office. They’ll look at what he’s changed and what campaign promises he kept. They’ll present their findings to their peers before the end of the academic year.