On the Fourth of July, cherubs crowded around bathroom mirrors in Jones Hall, helping one another brush red, white and blue glitter across their faces. Containers of the sparkles moved from one floor to the next as students passed it among friends. Cherubs then changed into what Carter Heit of Haworth, New Jersey called their “extremely patriotic outfits,” before beginning the day’s work.
The day began with a morning lecture that prepared them for their reporting assignment on Evanston’s Fourth of July parade. Program Director Roger Boye wrapped up the lecture by surprising the cherubs with presents, whose contents will remain a surprise for next year’s class.
“That really kicked off the day and made it feel special,” said Shona Karp of Pennington, New Jersey.
With Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the U.S.A.” blaring from portable speakers, the cherubs walked from campus toward the parade route. They reported on everything from Uncle Sams on stilts to politicians and protestors hoisting signs in the air.
“The parade was one of my favorite parts of this entire program,” May Lin of Belmont, California, said.
After reporting on the parade, cherubs walked approximately three miles back to South Campus to get some rest and start working on their articles. Some huddled over laptops in their beds, while others spread out in the common rooms to compare notes and write alongside friends. Then, as the sky darkened around 9 p.m., groups walked towards Northwestern’s lakefront to watch the fireworks display.
Fog left behind by thunderstorms that afternoon concealed the shapes of many of the individual fireworks. Instead, each explosion spread a flash of color across the clouds. Karp described hearing a boom and watching one color “light up the entire sky.”
Lin said that although the fog prevented the fireworks from appearing clearly, it “added to the general ambience,” creating cool backdrops for photos with friends.
For Karp, who usually spends July Fourth at the Jersey Shore, the pier on Lake Michigan offered a familiar setting even while she was away from home.
“I could still experience fireworks at the beach, just like home, while also being on a college campus,” she said.
Maddie Shoop-Gardner of San Carlos, California, usually watches fireworks from her grandparents’ house in Virginia Beach, Virginia. She said that spending the holiday with fellow cherubs gave the group a chance to bond.
“Spending the fourth at Northwestern is now a shared experience that we all have in our memory,” she said.
