I honestly believe we will have a peaceful transfer of power.”

Joe Cassady, PHS teacher and advisor to the academic club Close Up

How to help them get to D.C.

There are several ways you can help members of the Portsmouth High School Project Close Up club get to Washington, D.C. for the Inauguration on Dec. 20, 2025.

The easiest method is to visit PHS teacher Joe Cassady’s GoFundMe page, “Support Joe’s Students’ Trip to Inauguration,” at gofundme/7a114572. There you can donate any amount with the click of a button.

The club will also be hosting several fund-raisers between now and January.

The next one is a Chipotle Fundraiser that will take place from 5-9 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 27, at the Chipotle in Middletown at 11 East Main Road. You may also order online from that location within the same timeframe and use this discount code: P4XPW4F. Twenty-five percent of all sales will be donated to the cause.

Club members have hosted several bake sale fund-raisers at Clements’ Marketplace, with the next one from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 9.

PORTSMOUTH — Regardless of who they’re pulling for, several Portsmouth High School students will witness real American history unfolding right in front of them when they travel to Washington, D.C. for the Presidential Inauguration in January. 

They’re members of Project Close Up, a national organization which gives high school students the opportunity to see how the sausage is made in D.C. by hosting meetups with lawmakers, workshops on government issues, and discussions with other civic-minded students from around the country. 

Joe Cassady, who teaches AP government, U.S. history and anthropology at PHS, is the advisor for the voluntary academic club at the school.

“We go with Close Up every year, and it’s a chance to look at government inside the beltway,” Cassady said. “We’re down there for a week, typically the end of February or the first week of March. We focus on the legislative branch, but every four years we have an opportunity to go to the inauguration.”

Students will be flying down to see either Kamala Harris or Donald Trump take the oath of office on Jan. 20. They’ll be there from Jan. 16-23.

“Our school has been down there for both Obamas, the first Trump. We were lined up to go to Biden when Covid hit. This is our first opportunity in eight years to do another inauguration,” he said.

Without tipping their hands as to who they’d prefer to be the next president, some students pointed out the inauguration will be historic no matter the outcome. Kamala Harris would be the first woman to hold the office as well as the first person of Indian/African-American descent. If Donald Trump regains the presidency, it would be the first time a president was elected to two non-consecutive terms since 1893, when Grover Cleveland took the oath a second time.

This is senior Sophia Turner’s first year doing a Close Up trip, and she can’t wait. “I love D.C. and I’m really interested in government and policy at both the national and international levels,” she said. “It’s different than when you’re learning about it in Mr. Cassady’s AP government class. But when you’re actually there, you understand it. I think a lot of people are really disillusioned with politics these days. They don’t know what’s going on and they don’t really care to understand it. It gives us an opportunity to understand it better.”

Another senior, Philomena Muscarella, said she’s excited about the trip because she plans on pursuing political science in college. “I think it’s a great opportunity to get to work with people who are likeminded and in the field, and understand what they do day to day,” said Muscarella, adding she’s previously been to D.C. to get the “outsider’s look,” but this time will be different.

Dillon Fesmire, also a senior, is in his first year with Close Up. “I’m looking forward to understanding and being a part of something that is historic. At the same time, a lot of people kind of forget how important these events are and how patriotism is almost seen negatively,” he said.

Although students will hit some of the more popular tourist stops such as the Holocaust Museum and the Natural History Museum, they’ll also get opportunities most visitors don’t — such as a tour of the Pentagon that’s been arranged through Close Up. 

“When you’re going with a group from school, is a completely different mindset — especially if you want to go into government or leadership or anything like that,” Fesmire said.

Pheonyx Farwick, a junior who went on last year’s Close Up trip, said it’s crucial for young people to learn how the wheels of government spin. “I think being ignorant is one of the main causes of intolerance. Being educated, especially when it comes to government, voting, and about the people who make decisions for you, is so important,” she said.

‘Super expensive’

To make the trip happen, however, the Close Up club needs help and donations from the community. (See related story.)

“It’s a super-expensive trip,” said Cassady. “Each one of them is about $3,200 to get them down for the week, and that pays for everything.”

According to Cassady’s GoFundMe page, the goal is to raise $65,000. Students have already held several fund-raisers, including bake sales at Clements’ Marketplace. Heather Williams, a senior, has also been tasked with reaching out to the Kiwanis and Elks clubs.

“I’m really happy that we get to fund-raise, because it’s important to work with the community,” said Muscarella.

‘Peaceful transfer’ expected

The Close Up group will probably rely on jumbotrons to view the oath of office. The crowd was “shoulder to shoulder” for the first Obama inauguration, and the closest the Portsmouth group came was probably a quarter-mile away, Cassady said. (He was even further from the stage — nearly a mile away at the Washington Monument — because a student had fallen ill, delaying his arrival.)

Students got much closer — “about a couple of hundred yards away” — to see Trump take the oath in 2017, he said, but they still viewed it from the large video screens.

Cassady said while he expects his group will see “lots of protests” during their time in D.C. and that student safety will be paramount, “I honestly believe we will have a peaceful transfer of power.”

Cassady said what he likes about Close Up is that’s federally supported and non-partisan, but that doesn’t mean members don’t form their own opinions about candidates or platforms. “We don’t know who’s going to win,” he said. “I’m sure at some level they all have their own horse in the race; it’s not a question I often ask.”

Cassady acknowledged that most of his students were expecting and hoping Hillary Clinton would win the presidency in 2016 — Rhode Island leans left, after all — but they still participated in the January 2017 trip after Trump came out on top. 

“The same group that was disappointed in the inauguration was excited to be part of the Women’s March, which was the next day,” he said. “So the hope is that regardless of the outcome, all these kids can walk away from it and say, ‘That’s a memory that I will never forget.’”