RENSSELAER, IND. — Rensselaer Central Schools Corporation teacher Stephanie Davisson is attending the inauguration ceremony of President-elect Donald Trump today. Davisson may attempt to broadcast her view of the crowds and ceremonies live on her Facebook page, and she plans to give presentations on what she sees for Rensselaer students on Monday.
Davisson requested tickets from local congressman, Todd Rokita, but her mother managed to acquire two tickets from a North Carolina Representative and gave them to Davisson and her sister to use. A representative for Rokita later managed to upgrade their tickets to an area called the Red Zone near the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
Davisson challenged herself to seek out at least 49 memorable experiences after turning 49 herself. Though it’s a little late, she’s counting the inauguration as one of them.
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” she said. “I just turned 50 this year, and my sister and I were talking. We’re like ‘We should do this’ and so it just worked out really well.”
She also plans on sharing her experiences with those who didn’t have the opportunity to come with her.
“I’m going to actually do a little bit of speaking on Monday with the Social Study Enrichment Classes at the Middle School,” Davisson said. “I’ll have slide shows and I’ll have a lot of information as well that I’m going to give out to the middle school kids and my choir kids on Monday.”
Those middle school classes span from 8 a.m. to 10:40 a.m. Davisson will also be giving a similar presentation at Rensselaer Central High School from 2:30-3:15 p.m. on Monday
For Davisson, this experience partly ties in with her work for the Indiana Bicentennial earlier in the year, during which she put on a separate slideshow of Indiana information and participated as a Jasper County torch bearer. In her mind, Governor Mike Pence’s election to the Vice Presidency has brought Indiana to the national stage.
“That’s what I think’s most fun about it,” Davisson said, “is we’ve got a little Indiana sharing with the world here, through Governor Pence. And I like Mr. Trump, but I love Mr. Pence.”
