CARBONDALE - About 100 Southern Illinois University Carbondale journalism students will have the opportunity to experience President-elect Barack Obama's inauguration firsthand.

The students will travel to Washington, D.C., to witness the historic event and put their journalistic training to use, said William Recktenwald, a senior lecturer of journalism at SIUC.

Students will be reporting, taking photographs and shooting video for The Southern Illinoisan, the Daily Egyptian and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

"Hopefully the students are able to get something productive out of it - whether it's something they use now or in the future," said Martin Dubbs, an SIUC graduate student who organized the trip.

Two charter buses will leave Carbondale on Jan. 19 and students will stay in a hotel about 100 miles outside of the nation's capital that night, Recktenwald said. On the morning of the inauguration, they will travel into the city.

In addition to witnessing the event itself, the students will also be able to explore the city, he added. Stu-dents will have time to see various monuments and memorials if they wish.

Having the opportunity to cover the inauguration is "definitely a learning experience" for future journal-ists, Recktenwald said.

"It's an experience they will never have again," he said. "It's going to be one that 20 or 30 or 40 or 50 years from now their grandchildren will hear about."