The weekend before Thanksgiving is marked on Nerinx calendars as the weekend of the School of the Americas (SOA) Trip. The trip is sponsored by the Peace and Justice club, and this year a sizable contingent of Nerinx students will be attending the protest. The SOA, formally known as WHINSEC, is a US Department of Defense Institute that trains Latin American government personnel in military tactics. During the Cold War Era, the SOA trained a number of students who then went on to become dictators and soldiers of oppressive Latin American regimes.  The regimes then committed human rights violations and murders.

The Nerinx group traveling to the protest this year is a mixture of students who have gone in the past and students who will be experiencing their first protest. When asked why she was returning again to the SOA, junior Katherine Ward said that the SOA protest “is a different experience each time, and I learn something new every time I participate.” This sentiment is felt by other returning students like senior Gretchen Boxdorfer who added “the SOA was honestly a life-changing experience for me. It was on this trip that I spoke to some of the coolest people that I’ve ever met.”

When asked what participants in the SOA protest should expect, senior Beatrice Connaghan stated that “new protesters to the School of the Americas Protest trip should expect a variety of social justice issues to be presented to them on the trip. The SOA protest trip goes beyond protesting just one injustice and instead adopts an attitude of ‘An injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.’” While the main goal of the SOA trip is to protest the existence of the SOA, another aspect of the event is a conference on current social justice issues. The evening before the closing ceremonies of the vigil, participants can attend breakout sessions on issues such as drone warfare, the rights of farm workers, and urban education.

Nerinx students attend the protest not only because of their dedication to the closing of the SOA, but also because of the affect the trip has on them. Senior Gretchen Boxdorfer says that “the trip was eye-opening for me. It’s so easy to get caught up in our own personal lives and petty issues, but sometimes you have to step back and realize how good we have it, and understand that it’s our responsibility to help those in less fortunate situations.The protest inspired me to get more involved in social justice issues, and helped me to realize that even as a young high school student, things I do can make an impact.”

The SOA Vigil will take place in Fort Benning, Georgia on November 21-23.