The college junior says this was an experience he couldn’t pass up.
WASHINGTON D.C., DC — A Quinnipiac University student is getting ready to get a front row seat to history.
Twenty-one-year-old Alan McNeely will be attending President-elect Donald Trump’s second inauguration in our nation’s capital on Monday.
The college junior says this was an experience he couldn’t pass up.
“I want to see history with my own eyes,” McNeely said. “This another chapter of the book of life, at least my life.”
The journalism and political science double major is one of 15 Quinnipiac University students who traveled to the nation’s capital for a lesson in history.
The students just wrapped up an annual seminar earlier this week in D.C put on by QU and the Washington Center, a nonprofit.
McNeely is the only one staying for the swearing-in ceremony.
“Students and I were very disappointed we couldn’t be there for the inauguration,” Scott McLean, PhD. Quinnipiac University professor, said.
McLean has been bringing his students to presidential inaugurations since 2001, back when George W. Bush took the oath of office.
But he’ll be sitting it out this year due to what he calls unprecedented security levels.
“Safety was a concern for the students but also educationally,” he said. “When there’s that much security for an inauguration and security was increased, what happens is the speakers we usually rely upon to speak to our students, access to government buildings, access to downtown areas, that would have been severely curtailed.”
McNeely says he’d be attending this year’s inauguration regardless of who won the 2024 election, and he hopes he’ll return to Connecticut with a story to tell.
“No matter what, this election was historic. We were either going to have the first female president of the United States or we’re going to have the second non-consecutive president since Grover Cleveland,” McNeely said.
And as he takes in the sights and sounds of the massive event, he’ll also be listening closely to the message in the new president’s speech and whether it’s enough to bring a divided country together.
“I feel that this speech is going to determine a lot of what this presidency will look like and I hope this speech will be one to unite Americans instead of dividing all Americans,” McNeely said.
Bridgette Bjorlo is an anchor and reporter at FOX61 News. She can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Facebook, X, and Instagram.
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