Houston students travel to Washington, D.C. for March For Our Lives

HOUSTON (FOX 26) - What happened in Parkland, Florida shook the nation. Students like Sophia Kuperman say they are ready to see change. A reason why an estimated 500,000 people will be participating in the March For Our Lives rally in Washington, D.C. to discuss the issue of gun violence.

"People truly do fear," says Kuperman, a student at Emery High School. "I know I for one, I fear a lot of the places that I go to just unconsciously, if that makes sense, and I think that also just the fact that our school is going as a group and I don't know if there are ton of schools that are going as a group, but I'm sure there are a few I've heard about it, I think that that will also send a statement that schools are not OK with this."

To encourage students to take action, Livingston and Saranne Koseberg donated enough money so that 29 students and three chaperones could go on an all-expense paid trip to Washington, D.C. The catch was that each interested student had to write an essay on why they should be selected.

"I wrote about the first time that I remember, describes Kuperman. "I was a young teenager that I heard about this issue of gun violence, finding out about a shooting, so I wrote about when I was in seventh grade and we heard about the Sandy Hook shooting."

"We're incredibly thoughtful, compassionate and the commitment was evident in their writing, the frustration, the anger almost at times," says Aaron Markham, who teaches in the humanities discipline at Emery. "It was very clear that this was something they thought long and hard about, they were committed to it and that was part of the process."

Students like Ryan Bronston say that the trip will be a great learning experience.

"I'm really excited, I'm really excited to be with my peers, just kind of the atmosphere that will present itself when we finally get to D.C. is going to be something that I'm going to remember for a very long time, I'm sure," says Bronston.