Camryn Clift
Contributing Writer
Murray State’s Honors College traveled to Memphis, Tennessee, for an intensive day-and-a-half enrichment opportunity for its students.
The itinerary was jam-packed and diverse, including a Memphis Grizzlies game featuring Ja Morant in his first home game as an NBA player, the National Civil Rights Museum, the Rock ‘n’ Soul Museum, Beale Street and the Peabody Ducks.
Upon their arrival in Memphis, the students braved the rain to wait outside of FedExForum, where they watched Ja Morant play his opening home game as a Memphis Grizzly.
Tate Burris, a junior from Madisonville, Kentucky, was interviewed by WMC Action News 5 before the group entered the stadium, and was later featured on the news channel as well as its website.
A tour of the stadium, courtside seats during the teams’ warmups, and screen time on the above-court monitor were included in the group’s Grizzlies experience.
The second day in Memphis involved a visit to the National Civil Rights Museum, Central Barbecue for a lunch-turned-karaoke session, the Rock ‘n’ Soul Museum, free time on Beale Street, and watching the famous duck march at the Peabody Hotel.
Katie Waide, a junior economics and organizational communications major, was particularly impacted by the Civil Rights Museum.
“I think it opened my eyes a lot to, I don’t know, things I probably needed to consider more,” Waide said. “Especially being in the room where MLK was assassinated.”
Waide has participated in the Honors trip every year she has attended Murray State.
She values the learning opportunities and the opportunities for professional and personal development each trip has to offer.
“We all need eye-opening experiences to become more well-rounded individuals and to be able to communicate with more people,” Waide said.
Every fall for the past four years, Murray State’s Honors College has traveled to a new city for its annual trip.
The idea for the trip stemmed from the program coordinators’ desire to offer something new to the students of the Honors College.
“We first decided that we wanted to do this just to give the Honors students an opportunity to experience a culture outside of Murray,” Carole Inman, a student development counselor for the Honors College, said. “We go to different regions that we feel like might have a different culture and experience that.”
The inaugural trip that started the tradition was to Memphis, and Inman said it was time to return to that original site this year.
In the four years that the Honors College has taken this annual trip, the groups have visited Memphis, Tennessee; central Kentucky; Saint Louis, Missouri; and have now returned to Memphis.
This year’s trip touted the largest group yet, with 37 students in attendance.
The experience has grown since it began; Inman said this is because upperclassmen continue to return again and again each fall to embrace the tradition.
A key feature to the continual success of the trips is that the group embarks Friday afternoon and is able to return to Murray by Saturday night, allowing students to only miss half a day of classes, or none at all.
To view the interview with Burris, or watch the posted vlog of the Memphis weekend, visit the Honors College Facebook page.