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The inauguration of Barack Obama

A project of the PSU College of Communications

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Experiencing an event with a million other people is hard to explain without being there.

Imagine all the fans attending Nittany Lions home football games for an entire season trying to fit onto the University Park campus between 4 a.m. and noon while all the students and faculty are already there. Add in sub-freezing temperatures and a maze built out of marble buildings, Jersey barriers and tour buses and that pretty well describes navigating Washington D.C. on the day Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th President of the United States.

Some people had tickets and seats, most did not. But they braved the frigid temperatures, long walks and long lines at security checkpoints for the chance to stand, shiver a little and share a moment in history.

After escaping several minutes of human gridlock at First and D streets, six broadcasting students and two faculty advisors from the College of Communications hiked from the Capitol past the White House and looped between The Washington Monument and the WWII Memorial to become part of that inauguration day crowd and to document the experience of the people around them. As Barack Obama became President Obama on the steps of the Capitol more than a mile away, the crowd near the WWII Memorial watched on Jumbotron screens. Children waved flags. People shouted for joy as if the new chief executive could hear them.

For the students the event was not only a window into history, but also a chance to hone their journalism skills in the heady environment of a major news story.

Students at work

Each student worked on polishing their skills behind the microphone. Some also worked in front of the camera. Amy Aubert, Sam Scheller and Karissa Shatzer summed up the day's events in stand-ups incorporating the memorials and other historic structures of the Washington D.C. skyline as a backdrop.

 

Amy Aubert

Sam Scheller

Karissa Shatzer

The last word

The College of Communications contingent traveled to the Inauguration on a charter bus from Harrisburg. Amy Aubert interviewed two of the passengers about their experience moments before the bus left for the return trip.