UNC Chapel Hill 2.0

Two years ago, I took a group of students to visit the campus of UNC-Chapel Hill. Shoot, it was so dang fun that I decided to do it again.

UNC is the flagship school of our state. Sure, there's Duke, N.C. State, and Wake Forest, but they all really live in the shadows of the University of North Carolina Tar Heels. After all, it is the Tar Heel State (for reasons only history nerds would care about). A lot of my students are die hard UNC fans, which makes this trip so fun.

Kids playing games at "The Pit".

This year had a couple of upgrades. We got a sneak peak at the inside of Kenan Memorial Stadium where the Tar Heels play football, we got to go inside a museum dedicated solely to UNC Basketball (how many schools have one of those, right?), and we had a professor from the Congo come and teach my kids how to speak basic Lingala. We also got to hear from my buddy Pat O'Shea, who used to be a teacher at HMS before taking a job at UNC's dermatology clinic.

The activities, tours, and lectures were great, but if you asked my kids, many of them would say that the day's highlight came when we ate lunch at the Ram's Head dining hall on campus. All you can eat pizza, cheeseburgers, french fries, ice cream and cookies - now they ALL want to go to college!

Seriously though, the best part of the day came when we were finally back at HMS, and everyone was getting off the buses and returning to class. One boy sought me out. His name is Marcus, and he hasn't exactly been a star student this year. He's a little behind developmentally, which has made him frustrated with school in general. As a way to deal with being behind, he's become a class clown and a major distraction to teaching. But Marcus came up to me today in all soberness and just said, "Thank you, Mr. Olsen. I'm glad you let me come today."

"Me too, Marcus," I responded.

Then he gave me the special African-American-hip-homie handshake, a true sign of camaraderie and trust in the black community, and walked away back to class. He's the only student that came back to say thanks, and it made my day.

Sitting outside the Dean Smith Center, the Holy of Holies of college basketball. The kids were given these shirts as a parting gift, but some didn't want to wear them. Can you pick out the Duke fans? Can you say "sore losers"?

The full photo album can be viewed at my new Facebook page, http://www.facebook.com/Eminolsen