Several students from California moved their classrooms from the West Coast to the banks of the Alabama River Monday.

The students arrived in Selma as part of Jeff Steinberg’s Sojourn to the Past program. One of the group’s participants, Jospeh Munoz of Feather River College, said the trip has become an annual event.

“This is something we do every year,” he said. “It’s a group of schools from California, 10 to be exact, that take an educational tour across the country. Selma is a big part of it.”

According to the website www.soujournproject.com, Sojourn to the Past is a nonprofit organization that has, since 1999, taken thousands of students to date out of the classroom and across the country for a life-changing educational experience via hands-on lessons on the civil right movement.

In 1999 Sojourn to the Past was founded by Steinberg, recipient of the Jefferson Award and U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer’s Excellence in Education Award, “to motivate 11th and 12th grade students into a new generation of leaders.”

The program, the site said, uses a “highly emotional and eye opening 10-day journey to a period of segregation in the deep South, students learn the history behind racism in the United States and reflect upon their ability to embrace diversity and become an active advocate for social justice.”

Each year 70 to 100 students begin their journey in Atlanta and proceed by bus to Montgomery, Birmingham, Selma, Hattiesburg, Little Rock and Memphis.