They come from Poland or Estonia, Mexico or El Salvador. The English-learning high school students whom Dorothy Herzberg teaches have relatively shallow connections to the United States and faint understanding of how the country's political process works. "To them, whatever is happening in Washington could be happening on the moon," she says.
In 2001, Herzberg set out to make Washington, D.C., real for some students at Richmond (Calif.) High School by taking a group each year to the nation's capital as participants in a program run by the Close Up Foundation, a nonprofit educational organization. For a week during spring break, her students meet legislators and create their own mock congress with 160 students from throughout the United States. Every year, one or more students have asked her if the trip requires a passport.
In 2007, Herzberg expanded the program to include students at John F. Kennedy High School, also in Richmond. In the past eight years, she has taken 173 students and 20 teachers to the capital. To do so, she has helped raise an estimated $223,000 from direct donations, spaghetti feeds and car washes. This year, 30 students have asked to go on the trip in April, though many cannot afford the cost of $1,750. She estimates this year's need at $52,500 and worries that the donation spigot has run dry in the economic recession.
Students who want to go to Washington must meet with Herzberg monthly, write an essay, participate in fundraisers and do volunteer work. Herzberg monitors the students' performance in their classes and consults with their teachers before choosing—based on the students' level of commitment and the money available—which students get to go.
The trip opens the eyes of students who may only rarely get out of Richmond, says Rebekah Ponce-Larsen, who teaches English at Richmond High and chaperoned one trip. "They learn so much about how the government is run and political issues in a way they've never been able to learn before." Guadalupe Morales, 16, says the trip "gave me such an amazing opportunity to truly explore and understand our history."
Politics and community involvement have long been part of Herzberg's life. Both her parents ran for Congress. Herzberg majored in history and English at Brown University. She attended Stanford, studying history with professor Wayne S. Vucinich, before she joined the Peace Corps in 1961, among the first group of volunteers. After returning from Nigeria, Herzberg completed her master's degree in 1964.
It was while teaching English as a second language that she saw the disparity among schools and the insularity of many students' lives. Students at other high schools were going places; kids at Richmond High were going nowhere. When she first broached the idea of taking the students to Washington, she met some resistance from other teachers and administrators. "They didn't imagine the kids could go on the airplane."
Herzberg retired from teaching fulltime in 2005 but still works as a substitute teacher. She believes the trips have had a positive impact on the entire community. Standing in line at a grocery store once, she overheard a parent brag that her child had recently been sitting in the Supreme Court. "It's hard to let it go. It's so important."
MICHELLE QUINN is the lead writer for the The Bay Area blog of the New York Times.
