One of the last things Political Science Professor Norman Provizer does when wrapping up his Washington Politics travel class is finalize the itinerary. In this way he can allow for the unexpected learning opportunity—like the state funeral of a deceased president.

This past June, 13 Metro State students traveled with Provizer, who also directs Metro's Golda Meir Center for Political Leadership, to the nation's capitol to study American politics first hand. This two-week class (dubbed "Norman's Death March" by previous students), which packs monuments, museums, events and tightly-scheduled meetings into 15-hour days, provides a close-up glimpse in to how the work of government transpires in the United States.

In addition to witnessing the handing down of Supreme Court decisions, the class attended a Senate Judiciary Committee oversight hearing on the government's counter-terrorism effort with Attorney General John Ashcroft and visited the World Bank. Students also had the chance to hear former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo lecture about Lincoln and contemporary politics at the National Press Club, attend an Objectivist Center forum featuring Colorado Representative Tom Tancredo, Christopher Hitchens from Vanity Fair and others on "What Are Western Values and Should We Return to Them?" and a Cato Institute talk by John Micklethwait (U.S. editor of The Economist) and Adrian Wooldridge (Washington correspondent for The Economist) on "The Right Nation - Conservative Power in America" with comments by James Pinkerton of Newsday.

The students also met with Washington luminaries including Sen. John McCain, to whom they presented Metro's Golda Meir Center Leadership Award, Presidential Candidate Ralph Nader, the business editor of the Washington Post, Al Felzenberg, deputy for communications for the 9-11 Commission, Gerry West, senior advisor at the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency of the World Bank, and Richard Bissell, executive director of the Policy and Global Affairs division of the National Academy of Science.

And on Tuesday, June 8 as a nation watched on television, 13 Metro students accompanied their professor to the National Mall to watch President Ronald Reagan's horse-drawn cortege clatter by.

"What you learn from something like this," explains Francisco Gonzales, a senior majoring in Criminal Justice and Political Science, "is that there is so much more to learn than what you read in books. It opens your eyes to the rest of the world. You can feel the power that's throughout the District and it's amazing."