Contact: John Thompson, WWU Office of University Communications, (360) 650-3350 or john.thompson@wwu.edu.
BELLINGHAM - Little did Western Washington University sophomore Casey Nolan realize that her attendance at the Model United Nations in New York City as a student at Bellingham's Sehome High School would result four years later in an amazing prize: an invitation to the presidential inauguration of Barack Obama in Washington, D.C.
"What an incredible honor for myself and my family ... it's going to be amazing," Nolan said. "It will be an evening I'll be able to tell my children and grandchildren about."
Nolan's participation and success at the Model U.N. in 2004 added her to a database of up-and-coming students that was tapped to attend the University Presidential Inaugural Conference from Jan. 17-21, an event sponsored by the Congressional Youth Leadership Council. Almost a year ago, Nolan was notified that she was going to be invited to the conference, which includes attendance at both the inauguration itself as well as at an inaugural ball later that evening.
"The conference is going to be very interesting; we'll be participating in panel discussions with the likes of Colin Powell, Lance Armstrong and Al Gore, and, of course, with other students from across the country, so that alone was worth going for," she said. "But as the elections began shaping up last fall, the inauguration went from being interesting to being historic. I knew I had to go."
For more information on the conference or Nolan's visit to Washington, contact the WWU Office of University Communications at (360) 650-3350 or at news@wwu.edu.
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