Students meet with veterans at Independence Village

Every high school student gets the chance to learn about American wars in their history classes. Few get the chance to hear about war from the perspectives of people who lived it.

On a rainy Friday afternoon, Aurora High School and Harmon Middle School students gathered at Independence Village, a senior living community, to listen to resident veterans talk about their experiences while serving our country.

Aurora High School Spanish and Service Learning teacher Melissa Foster was initially contacted by Independence Village. She was told a group of resident veterans met frequently, and wanted to talk about their experiences with students. As the Interact Club advisor, she shared this opportunity with her students, who decided to take the veterans up on their offer.

Over the course of an hour, students listened as the veterans spoke about a variety of subjects, from joining the military as a teen to what it was like living at home during WWII. Most of the veterans were not old enough to fight in WWII, but remembered what life was like in wartime. Others fought in the Korean War, and shared their experiences.

Students also got the chance to see the veterans’ photographs, dogtags, and old wartime propaganda they had saved over the years.

Freshman Brandon Witmer said his favorite thing to learn about was, “How common victory gardens were as a source of food due to rations, and how the war affected everybody in a family--even if you weren't fighting.”

Junior Elizabeth Miller noted how even though so many years had passed, the wars still impacted the veterans.

“What stuck with me most was how after so many years, some of the veterans were clearly still deeply affected by what happened to them. They were incredibly passionate and could have talked for hours more.”

Even though it was difficult to relive some of these painful moments, the veterans enjoyed sharing their memories with the students, and were very thankful to the students for attending.

Foster said she hopes to continue these talks in the future, and make it a part of the Aurora Service Learning class’s annual Veterans Breakfast in November.

“I'd like to continue the series throughout the summer for whoever would like to attend. We will take short video clips, turn them into an iMovie, then show that at our Veterans Breakfast in the fall.”

Hopefully many more students will be able to interact with the living history right down the street from their social studies classrooms.