It's one thing to learn about the Civil Rights Movement from a textbook. It's quite another to give students the chance to share a bus ride and chat with Minniejean Brown Trickey, one of the Little Rock Nine who made history as a black girl who integrated an all-white school.

Meeting Minniejean was one of the highlights for Nyack social studies teacher Rudy Arietta and three students who spent their February break on a southern sojourn visiting the most dramatic Civil Rights Movement sites and hearing from key participants.

"Talk about a primary source: The kids got to eat dinner with a historical icon - Minniejean Brown Trickey," Arietta said. "I think the students were really struck by the fact that many of these key players were about their age when they stood up and stood strong for civil rights."

The "life-changing trip" was made possible for Arietta and three Nyack High School students thanks to support from the school district and the Nyack Teachers Association. To help cover the $2,500-per-person cost, students also sent personal letters seeking donations.

"Investing in our students is what we do best," said Nyack TA President Donna Ramundo, whose local union is part of NYSUT's Local Action Project to build bridges between the union and the community.

"Helping defer the cost of the trip for our students was a great way to show one of the various ways our members contribute to the school community outside the classroom."

The Sojourn trip is offered four times a year by organizer Jeff Steinberg, a former San Francisco history teacher who began the program a decade ago as an 11th-grade field trip.

Since then, the program has grown into an intense 10-day social justice excursion through civil rights sites in Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee and Arkansas.

 "It's definitely much more than a site-seeing tour," said Arietta, whose students had homework every night. "It's a total immersion - you really feel like you're following in the footsteps of civil rights veterans, meeting participants, hearing audiotapes and connecting the era to modern times."

Arietta said Trickey, a social worker now in her late 60s, emphasized how the movement's anti-violence agenda remains relevant today.

 "The goal is to teach students how to confront and shelve hurtful language, to forgive ignorance and realize the importance of not becoming silent witnesses to injustice," Arietta said.

Next year, Arietta hopes to make the trip again, this time with about 10 students. "We started small because we weren't sure what to expect," he said. "I'd love to make it an annual event."

The delegation of about 100 students, including five from the Bronx Lab School in New York City, was diverse, including white, black, Latino and Asian students, Arietta said.