For 19 MSU students, the inauguration is only a small part of the excitement of traveling to Washington, D.C.

The group is part of a semester-long study away program during which they will live, learn and work in the nation’s capital.

Each of the students will work at an internship while taking classes two nights per week.

For now, they’re focused on learning the ropes of a city transformed by inauguration buzz.

“It was a little overwhelming at first, but it’s a lot of fun,” public policy senior Andrew Goldberg said. “Even though we’ve only been living here about a week and a half, we’re already tired of the tourists.”

While things will calm down once the inaugural activities end, the students said that won’t make their experience any less fulfilling.

“We haven’t even begun our internships,” said Ashley Hoornstra, an international relations and Spanish senior. “We still have a lot to do. It’s exciting.”

The conference-goer

Physiology senior Michael Detrisac has known for eight months that he’d be in Washington, D.C., during the week of Jan. 20, but he had no idea he’d be witness to the inauguration of the first African-American president.

Detrisac signed up last year to attend this week’s University Presidential Inaugural Conference when he heard that Al Gore would be one of the speakers at the conference. He hoped to approach Gore for advice about possible opportunities to volunteer.

But since Obama won the election, Detrisac said he’s more focused on the swearing-in than the conference activities.

“I look at this moment, and I won’t remember (the conference) very visibly,” he said. “But someday I will be able to tell my children that I witnessed the first African-American president going to office. That, more than Colin Powell, more than talking to Al Gore, more than anything, will resonate most strongly with me.”

Over the course of the conference, Detrisac will hear from speakers including former Secretary of State Powell, political correspondent Tucker Carlson, and, if he’s lucky, maybe even President-elect Obama himself.

“There’s a rumor that Obama’s supposed to stop by,” Detrisac said. “That chance to meet him would be pretty cool.”

The MSU Trustees

Two members of MSU’s Board of Trustees are in D.C. to see Obama’s swearing-in. Board Chairman Joel Ferguson and Trustee Dianne Byrum both arrived in Washington Saturday.

While both said they’ll be taking off their trustee hats and putting on their Democratic Party-member hats for the inauguration, they expressed hope that Obama will keep higher education in mind once he takes office.0

Ferguson, who is also a member of the Democratic National Committee, said he is spending much of his time in meetings with the committee.

While he said there is no specific MSU-related issue he hopes to see Obama address, he hopes Obama will make good choices that yield benefits for the university.

“We’re all hopeful that the tide will rise, for all ships,” he said.

The youngest delegate

Jason Morgan may not look like the typical Democratic politician, but looks can be deceiving.

Morgan, a political science and international studies sophomore at Northern Michigan University, was the youngest delegate at last year’s Democratic National Convention.

Morgan is spending his inauguration week in Washington building contacts and participating in black tie events, which usually are frequented by political bigwigs and supporters with money.

“It’s just remarkable to be around so many elected officials who are just so important, but you get this opportunity to talk to them,” he said. “It gives you a much better feel for how the government actually works.”

Morgan, who worked for U.S. Congressman Bart Stupak, D-Menominee, last year, decided to come to the inauguration after Stupak offered him tickets to the swearing-in.

But even while he’s rubbing elbows with political elites, Morgan is doing it in true college student style.

“We drove from MSU Saturday night,” he said. “That was a nice, long 10-hour drive.”