"Seismic changes": St. Cloud State University students witnessing history in England
MINNEAPOLIS -- It was about two weeks ago that eight St. Cloud State University students arrived in the United Kingdom for a study abroad program.
When they arrived, a man was prime minister and a woman sat on the throne. Both of those changed this week with Liz Truss becoming prime minister and the death of Queen Elizabeth II, providing the students with a front-row seat to one of the most historic moments in British history.
"The point of the program is for students to come over here and see and do things that they can't do just by reading a book or taking a class in Minnesota and I would say you're certainly getting that now," said Dr. Emil Towner with SCSU. "People who have lived in this country for 60, 70 years have not a seen a change in monarch, and our students have been here a couple weeks, and they've already experienced that and so it's really seismic in what is happening right now in this country."
"There's a change in demeanor in people for sure. Even in the streets. We're in a mourning period at the moment so just, it's very solemn," said student Aaron Gregory.
Students in the program were meant to be in Scotland for a field trip Friday but as news broke of the queen's death Thursday night, those plans were quickly changed along with plans for the rest of the semester.
"We sort of had to scrap those plans. Most of the things around here shut down in respect and remembrance of the queen and so, we also found ourselves looking at what kind of experience we could give those students," Towner said. "We're monitoring the government's plans and how they plan to go forward with this and see what other positions we could maybe help the students get into to experience this."
"We're kind of just playing it by ear right now because not really a lot of people knows what happens next," Gregory said.
Regardless of what the plan is to mourn and commemorate the life of the queen, the students say they want to be a part of it.
"Right now, I'm trying to get out to Edinburgh on Monday which is when they're going to do her procession through the Main Street in Edinburgh," Gregory said.
"There's been talk of us potentially canceling a class for a day so we can do it as a group thing because it is very educational. How many times will anyone get the opportunity to do any of this?," said Alyssa Oelmann
"They will look back and, as people all around the world will, know exactly where they were when they learned of the Queen's passing. And for our students, it was northeast England not far from the Scottish border and that's just an amazing opportunity for them to experience history on the ground and be part of that," Towner said. "They've seen seismic changes both in terms of the monarch and prime minister and they will be here for a few more months to be able to process that and experience that change."
