As students looked up in the sky while sitting on the front lawn berm of the school, they realized what an opportunity Principal Martin Straub had given them on Aug. 21.

Leading up to the day of the eclipse, the school had daily trivia contests until the day of the eclipse. If a student was to get the answer correct, they were put into the drawing for a Hays High eclipse t-shirt. On Aug. 21, the students were let out of class from 12:40 a.m. to 1:20 p.m. on Monday to view the eclipse.

Science teacher Cheryl Shepherd-Adams also had a big influence on the students participating in the eclipse. Roughly 40 students traveled to the University of Nebraska-Kearney to experience the totality. Shepherd-Adams said that UNK provided all in attendance with reserved seating in their stadium, experts that narrated the process for them, free eclipse glasses, and a free lunch.

Junior Josh Norris attended the eclipse with fellow students in Nebraska.

“You can’t describe what it looked like in person from pictures,” Norris said. “It’s a once in a lifetime chance and I think that everyone should be able to see it’s complete totality at least once in their life.”

The students traveling to Nebraska had a chance to witness the once in a lifetime opportunity, as Norris said, to experience the world get dark for a couple minutes. The birds started chirping, the dogs went to sleep, and most of all the sun was hidden.

Norris said that traffic was backed up for miles along the highways and interstates. People from all over the United States were traveling to experience the eclipse in complete totality.

Junior Isaiah Schindler was also there along for the trip.

“I thought that the totality was really amazing,” Schindler said. “It changed so many people’s lives right on the spot.”

19tschiffelbein@usd489.com