EDGARD — When Trenice Cooper was a student at the now-closed John F. Kennedy High School in New Orleans some 20 years ago, she knew she lived in a bubble.

“I lived in an urban area,” she said. “I wasn’t surrounded by all the different cultures. I didn’t understand the world and how it is.”

Then one of her teachers picked her to attend the annual Close Up Foundation trip to Washington, D.C. Since 1971, thousands of school children across the nation have made the trip to the nation’s capital to an get in-depth look at how government works through seminars and interactive participation.

Cooper, now a business teacher at West St. John High School, said it was the experience of a lifetime.

“It exposed me to a lot of different personalities,” she said. “It was truly a learning experience. It brought me out of my box, out of my shell, and showed me that everybody is not the same.”

Now Cooper wants to give that same experience to a group of students at West St. John. She is organizing a trip for April 16-21 for 15 students. While students have made various trips to the capital, the school has never participated in the Close Up program, she said.

“The first thing I asked Mr. (Claude) Hill when I got here was, could I take these kids to Close Up,” Cooper said. “He said yes, but we’d have to fundraise.”

Cooper’s trip was paid for, in part, by grant money that is no longer available. The West St. John students will have to raise the cost of nearly $1,800 per person themselves.

To help raise the funds, the students will host a prayer breakfast with Pastor Oscar Nelson of St. Mark Baptist Church on Saturday, Jan. 7 at 9 a.m. in the school gymnasium. The cost is $10 per person and will include a full breakfast with the food donated by Anthony Dixon of Carrabba’s Italian Grill.

There is no need to make a reservation. Attendees may pay at the door.

Other fundraisers are planned for upcoming months.

“It’s a hefty process, but I want them to know how to ask for something and how to work for something,” Cooper said, adding the trip is worth the time and effort.

“They learn how to debate, they learn about their country and what’s going on,” she said.

“They will visit all the monuments. It’s a special program and this is a very good bunch of kids that I trust and I know will get something out of it.”

For more information, call Cooper at 504-931-5441 or visit edline.net/pages/WSJH.