The Sun Valley Magnet School leadership class from Los Angeles spent their weekend in Selma and other Alabama areas to learn about the Civil Rights movement.

“We actually want them to learn the skills of leaders and being exposed to things that will motivate them to want to make changes in the world,” said leadership program director Steve Franklin. “To us, Selma represents a place where change happened and inspires change.”

The school traveled to Selma to see the Edmund Pettus Bridge and do a walking tour of the churches and locations with prominence for the city’s history.

“This trip only verifies the resilience the American people have and it just shows how brave and courageous they are,” said rising senior Bryanna Wright. For other students, visiting a small town with big history is a surreal experience.

“It really makes me feel like I am in history,” said 15-year-old Pamela Millan Alcaraz.

Franklin believes bringing the students to the locations of where certain events happened, will resonate its history more within the students.

“You can tell people about history, you can have them read things about it of you can even have them see the movie,” Franklin said. “But there’s no alternative to physically bringing people to the places where history happened.”