Student spends two weeks in Congressional Academy

HUNTINGTON -- The son of middle and high school history teachers, Huntington High senior Nick Lemley said learning about the past is in his blood.

And he said he can't get enough of it.

From June 29 through July 11, Lemley was one of 100 incoming high school seniors to be selected to participate in the 2008 Congressional Academy, held in Washington, D.C. After sending in his application and essay about why history is important, his civics teacher Donna Myers wrote a letter of recommendation for him.

The two weeks included day trips to Gettysburg and Philadelphia as well as in-depth sessions on the Declaration of Independence and Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech.

"It really challenged my thinking," Lemley said. "The opportunity given to us ... it was really cool."

Lemley said he's been to Washington, D.C., a number of times with his parents, who teach at Fairland Middle School and Ironton High School. But he said professors conducting the Congressional Academy helped the students take a deeper look into the events and documents that have shaped the country.

A press release on the Congressional Academy states it will "expose participants to the ideas and arguments that shaped these three great American epochs, the documents that make up our history and the places where the history was made."

Lemley said Gettysburg, which he visited with his family when he was in elementary school, meant the most to him.

"It was a very powerful experience," Lemley said. "My sense of patriotism skyrocketed.

"History up until now has been reading and re-reading documents and trying to interpret them," he said.

Lemley would like to attend either the Naval Academy or West Point and study political science, naval architecture or mechanical engineering.