This one-of-a-kind course at GW involves a class trip to Normandy over spring break.
Revolving around a trip to Normandy, France, The Price of Freedom: Normandy 1944 is a four-credit WID course offered through the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences.
Envisioned by Tom Long, an associate professor of history, the class teaches students about the impact of the Normandy Campaign, tasking each student to conduct in-depth research on a specific soldier buried at the American Battlefield Cemetery at Omaha Beach.
The weeklong trip begins in England with stops like Pegasus Bridge, where British Airborne troops landed on D-Day, and the American Battlefield Cemetery at Omaha Beach, where each student laid a wreath and read a eulogy for the soldier they researched, and concluded in Paris.
Students walk and laugh at the Longues-sur-Mer battery located between Omaha and Gold Beaches. (Chuckie Copeland | Staff Photographer)Charlie, a service dog who joined the trip, looks up at the Second Infantry Division Memorial at Omaha Beach. (Chuckie Copeland | Staff Photographer)Junior Reeya Patel and senior Harrison Prough view a memorial to Canadian soldiers who were massacred at the Abbaye d’Ardenne near Authie, France. (Chuckie Copeland | Staff Photographer)Students follow Professor Long across a field at Longues-sur-Mer battery, part of the Atlantic Wall. German heavy guns were placed here to fire out to sea against incoming Allied ships. (Chuckie Copeland | Staff Photographer)A view from the Pointe du Hoc cliff to the beach where American rangers landed on June 6, 1944. They climbed up this cliff base under heavy German fire. The barbed wire in the foreground has been there since World War II. (Chuckie Copeland | Staff Photographer)Sophomore Will Brobson gives a presentation about Navy underwater demolition teams at Omaha Beach. (Chuckie Copeland | Staff Photographer)Students walk on Juno Beach, where Canadian soldiers landed June 6, 1944. (Chuckie Copeland | Staff Photographer)Sophomore Lizzie White gives a presentation about cemetery design at the German War Cemetery in Normandy. (Chuckie Copeland | Staff Photographer)Susan and Tom Long walk with senior Harrison Prough at the American Cemetery above Omaha Beach. (Chuckie Copeland | Staff Photographer)Senior Blake Hindle and sophomore Grace Brenner stand in front of a grave at the American Cemetery in Normandy. (Chuckie Copeland | Staff Photographer)The Mike Sector of Juno Beach where Charles de Gaulle came ashore June 14, 1944 to establish the Provisional French Government in France. Winston Churchill and King George VI also landed here on different days. (Chuckie Copeland | Staff Photographer)Normandy GWU 2023 is written in the sand on a beach. (Chuckie Copeland | Staff Photographer)The Normandy Scholars Class of 2023 stands for a group picture at Grosvenor Square, the site of U.S. Embassy from 1785 until 2017. (Chuckie Copeland | Staff Photographer)
