"America's Field Trip"

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Let me see if I can pronounce this right. This
will be the semi Quinn centennial, the two hundred and
fiftieth anniversary of the signing of our Declaration of Independence.
And there's a really cool contest or effort or event,
if you will, and that's going on sponsored by America

(00:21):
two fifty. It's called America's Field Trip. And if you
have a kid in grades three through twelve, you're going
to want to know about this. And we're joined for
a few minutes this morning by the chair of America
two fifty, Rosie Rios. Rosie, good morning, Good morning Gary.

Speaker 2 (00:36):
Thanks for having me.

Speaker 1 (00:36):
You're welcome. It's wonderful to have you here. And I
love this effort. This is it a contest, exactly it is.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
It's a national student competition for grades three through twelve.
We'll get to answer the question what does America mean
to me?

Speaker 1 (00:50):
Beautiful? And what form do you compete?

Speaker 2 (00:56):
So students could submit anything from an essay at home,
maybe a piece of artwork. And the great part about
this competition is that the award recipients get to choose
from a series of backstage experiences, most of which had
never been offered to the public. Before. So whether you're
in DC, whether you're in California, whether you're in Wyoming,

(01:18):
The National Park Service, Slithsonian, the National Archives, Library of
Congress and a number of other folks have put together
some really great backstage tours to discover our country all
over again.

Speaker 1 (01:28):
Outstanding. How many winners will there be?

Speaker 2 (01:31):
They'll be seventy five first place award recipients and then
another seventy five second place recipients who get a cash
award of five hundred dollars.

Speaker 1 (01:40):
Awesome. So you do have an actual chance. I mean,
because you're going to you're going to get entries from
all fifty states.

Speaker 2 (01:46):
I'm sure absolutely. In fact today, you know, we launched
this on September sixteenth of this year of twenty twenty four.
We've already received submissions from I think forty one states already,
so it's going very well.

Speaker 1 (01:58):
Great America's Field Trip is the contest you can do.
What is there an essay? If you want to write something?
Is there a word limit or how does that work?

Speaker 2 (02:10):
You know, it's different word limits for different age groups.
But I would say, you know, it's probably the most
important takeaway here is it'd be great to have it
be you know, from from the kid's perspective, hopefully as
personal as possible, you know, again, thinking about this great
country and the patriotism that hopefully we're going to evoke
from something like this, but it also could be something
about maybe it's your parents coming over to this country,

(02:31):
maybe it's your grandfather or your uncle who served in
a war. And so it's really kind of a great
kind of introspective journey for a lot of these kids
who may not have realized some of the great stories
of our history, but most importantly, how to inspire them
for their future.

Speaker 1 (02:47):
That's a beautiful thing. I love it because too often, Rosie,
as you know, we hear about division and negativity, and
this is exactly the opposite of that. I love it.

Speaker 2 (02:57):
Well, that's exactly right. And you know, we're a Congressional
commission established by legislation intended to be non partisan, bipartisan,
all partisan, and so far there was support that we
re received, whether it's from Congress, whether it's from the
American public, from this first round of America's Feel trip
that we did as a pilot earlier this summer, from
the states. In fact, you know, the state of Nebraska

(03:19):
has established their own America two fifty commission is part
of our efforts to make sure that every state is represented,
and we make this as grassroots and communities driven as possible.

Speaker 1 (03:29):
Okay, well, let's get down to it. Are because I
know there are parents listening right now who are excited
and would like to have their their kids have the
opportunity to enter. What are the parameters, how do you enter?
What is there a deadline? Give us the specifics here, Rosie,
absolutely so.

Speaker 2 (03:45):
You can go onto our website at America too fifty
dot org Last Deal Trips. Whether you're a student, a parent,
or even a teacher, we have all kinds of resources available.
In fact, we even have certain prompts available how to
think about your submission, whether it's again in linked it
to the Declaration of Independence or again something that's a
little bit more personal. The deadline for this next round

(04:06):
is April sixteenth, twenty twenty five, and the field trips
will take place the following summer, next summer of twenty
twenty five. And the great thing, too, is even for teachers,
we even have lesson plans available for how to integrate
the exercise into their curriculum. And look, we're on a
holiday break, are coming up on a holiday break. What
a great way for kids and families to sit down

(04:27):
and really think about what America means to all of them.

Speaker 1 (04:29):
Are most are possibly all schools. As far as you
are now familiar with us, the faculty will know what
the happen.

Speaker 2 (04:37):
We did the pilot program this last break spring and
we received thousands of submissions. We expect this next round
to be even bigger and better. So I would say,
you know, we're trying to get the word out. This
is why radio stations like yours and and other broadcast
opportunities is really going to help us get the word up.
And we're also you know, using social media. Even some

(04:58):
of our members of Congress. We've had Senator Capito even
do a school visit. So a lot of people are
really getting into this, and we want this to be
very interactive, very physical, and maybe form those bonds of
connection that we lost over the pandemic. And so this
is really a great way to bring families together and
really connect this to our history. But most importantly, this

(05:18):
is also as much about our future as well.

Speaker 1 (05:20):
Excellent It's America two fifty dot org slash America's.

Speaker 2 (05:25):
Field trip Yeah, americapitty dot org slash.

Speaker 1 (05:28):
Field trip, slash field Trip, wonderful, Rosie, thank you, great info.

Speaker 2 (05:33):
Thank you so much. Jiri, you bet.

Speaker 1 (05:34):
I appreciate you coming on. Rosie Rios, who heads up
America two fifty. That is a beautiful thing right there,