Each year, junior and senior members of the Brother David S. Baginski, FSC Scholars Program embark on a 4-day domestic trip to a major US city. This year, a grueling 8-hour bus ride led the group of 31 Scholars to the Windy City of Chicago, Illinois.

The trip began with a walking tour of Millennium Park, which is home to the Instagram-famous sculpture, The Bean. The first order of business was a group photo, of course.

Following the sightseeing tour of downtown Chicago, the Scholars browsed the world-renowned galleries of the Chicago Museum of Art, home to over 300,000 different pieces.

After working up an appetite throughout the busy afternoon, the group enjoyed Chicago’s famous deep-dish pizza at Giordano’s, a local pizza shop.

After a good night’s rest, the trip continued into day 2 with lectures at the University of Chicago and Northwestern University.

Students were able to engage in thought-provoking discussions with current professors, tour the respective campuses, and catch a glimpse of what a typical day-in-the-life of a college student looks like.

Particularly fascinating was a conversation with Dr. Daniel Hale Williams, Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Northwestern University, about the ethics of organ donation and the future of regenerative tissue engineering.

On day 3, the Scholars put a pause on college lectures to enjoy a boat tour of the scenic Chicago skyline.

Later in the evening, the group visited Chicago’s Goodman Theatre, where Swing State, a Playbill production, was showing.

On the way back to Pittsburgh, the Scholars Program took a brief detour to Notre Dame University in South Bend, Indiana.

There, the group attended Mass at Notre Dame’s cathedral with former Scholars Program alumni Christian Farls ’21, Matt Zagrocki ’21, and John Blount ’22.

While the trip to Chicago lasted just 4 short days, the memories made on the bus, at the lectures, and over mountains of Deep-Dish pizza will last a lifetime.