The first semester of school at the University of Missouri the faculty, students, and teachers across the campus found themselves in the midst of history in the making. Over a multitude of days, throughout the campus a variety of students assembled to fight for the racial equality and humanity of in some cases themselves and in others their peers.

“When all of this happens, we ask ourselves why are were there? I think that’s something that we all had to discover while this was going on. Part of finding our meaning and purpose is truly understanding why were are there and we are there to document the history,” Photojournalist and Columbia Missourian Photo Editor Tim Tai stated.

An immense amount of time had to be put forth not just for the fact that the journalist were required to be there to complete the assignment but to tame the spark of personal interest and attachment that emerged regarding the situation.

“I knew how important the story was, if you weren’t there you would worry about what you’re missing, and overall the story is a very important one. You can always make up missed work in class but you can’t make up missing history,” Photojournalist and Columbia Missourian staff photographer Justin Stewart said.

Becoming so involved academically and emotionally in such a controversial topic can teach you things that you can’t learn in the class room. Often times real life situations struggle to show up in the classroom.

“We learned a lot last semester. I think I learned more last semester during the protest than I have the past 4 years I have attended the University of Missouri,” Photojournalist and Columbia Missourian Photo Editor Sarah Bell described.

For weeks students and administrators were involved in a protest that included a mass amount of people coming together to fight for a common cause. The leader being a former Mizzou graduate of the Journalism school based in the University of Missouri.

“The goal of the protest was to get our message to the administrators,” Protest leader Jonathan Butler said