{"691263":{"#nid":"691263","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Georgia Tech-Europe and University of North Georgia Partnership Connects Students to Personal and Shared Histories of World Wars I and II","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EGeorgia Tech-Europe and University of North Georgia Partnership Connects Students to Personal and Shared Histories of World Wars I and II\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ESAINT-AVOLD, France. On a June afternoon at the Lorraine American Cemetery in Saint-Avold, 250 Georgia Tech-Europe (GTE) students stand looking over a field of 14,246 white marble headstones, one for each U.S. service member buried beneath. Silence surrounds the group as Matthew Ramsey, a Georgia Tech undergraduate, leans a wreath against the tombstone of his great-grandfather, Staff Sergeant Russell Wilson, an Army infantryman killed in the Battle of the Bulge. Ramsey performs the familial ceremony, rubbing sand from Omaha Beach and planting a flag in front of the headstone. \u0022I am the first person in my family to ever get the chance to do so,\u0022 he shares. Other GTE students witness the moment, connecting to a history that has shaped the world as they know it.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EExploring personal and shared world histories is central to a Georgia Tech-Europe education. Situated in one of the most contested landscapes in modern Western history, GTE offers students direct access to the trenches, forts, and cemeteries of two world wars. Courses such as Professor Timothy Stoneman\u2019s HTS 2037: 20th-Century Europe, and portions of Professor Jennifer Orth-Veillon\u2019s LMC 3234: Travel Writing, incorporate these sites into their curriculum. This summer, GTE partnered with the University of North Georgia on an immersive military history program featuring Professor Jon Beall\u2019s HTS 3803: War \u0026amp; Leadership, Middle Ages to Present. Across these courses, students move beyond dates and statistics to engage with the human stories of history and reflect on their connections to the past.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ELike Matthew Ramsey, Cadet Kyle Gallentine, a UNG cybersecurity major, reported standing in the Lorraine Cemetery brought him closer to his great-grandfather, a WWII soldier. \u0022When I left the cemetery, I felt a strong desire to learn my family\u0027s story,\u0022 Gallentine said. \u0022We still have his uniform, campaign map, photographs, and other keepsakes, but I never truly knew the story behind them.\u0022\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAfter the Lorraine Cemetery visit, Orth-Veillon, Stoneman, and Beall led an overnight trip to the Meuse region. Nicolas Czubak, official historian of the Verdun Memorial Museum, guided the group through the Meuse-Argonne cemetery, the Butte de Vauquois, and the Montsec Memorial before reaching Verdun itself, France\u0027s most symbolic WWI battlefield. For Peter Kobes, a mechanical engineering major, the cemetery reframed how he thought about war\u2019s cost. \u0022By resting at the place they fell, these soldiers let strangers like me stop and reckon with their loss,\u0022 he wrote in a photo essay assigned for the trip.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe students\u2019 second trip to Belgium carried a different weight, as it was inspired by Orth-Veillon\u2019s own family history. Her grandfather, Dr. William J. Hagood Jr., served as a battalion surgeon with the 335th Infantry Regiment, 84th Division, during the Battle of the Bulge. Orth-Veillon interviewed him before his death in 2009 and has since drawn on an archive of over 500 of his wartime letters. That research led her to Jacques Bourguignon, 104, a former Belgian resistance fighter who sheltered Hagood\u0027s medical unit in his family\u0027s cellar in Marche-en-Famenne over Christmas 1944. \u0022On Christmas Eve, they sheltered there with about fifty others, including neighbors, other soldiers, and even German prisoners,\u0022 Orth-Veillon shares. The two men remained friends by letter until the 1960s.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe highlight of the trip came when thirteen students from Orth-Veillon\u0027s, Stoneman\u0027s, and Beall\u0027s classes spent the morning with Jacques Bourgignon at his retirement home. Bourguignon, an active member of the Lion\u2019s Club and current president of Marche-en-Famenne\u2019s motorcycle club, told them the story of his life, focusing on the resistance, which he joined at age 17.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWere you afraid during your missions?\u201d asked the students.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWe weren\u2019t scared,\u201d he replied, chuckling. \u201cWe were crazy. I joined the resistance because I wanted to do something to fight back. It felt like the only human way to respond.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWhat do you want to say to people today?\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cTry to do as much good as possible in life. I am grateful to the Americans for the liberation of Belgium. After years of occupation and suffering, seeing them arrive was unforgettable.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThey also visited Bastogne War Museum to commemorate the Ardennes Offensive, during which \u0026nbsp;89,000 American soldiers were killed or wounded between December 1944 and January 1945. For Tucker Messer, a rising second-year business administration major, the visit brought a family story to life: his great-grandfather, Oscar Messer, fought there with the 10th Armored Division\u0027s 61st Armored Infantry Battalion. \u0022Walking around the scene of the heavy fighting, I realized how fragile human life is and how one small thing changes history,\u0022 Messer said. \u0022If a random German teenager fighting in the battle had aimed better and killed my great-grandfather, I would not be here.\u0022\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0022Few academic programs place students directly inside the geography of the history they study,\u0022 said Beall, who guided the group through Stavelot, a resistance stronghold during the Ardennes Offensive. Learning deepens when students stand where history happened and connect their identities to the people and events that shaped it. As Orth-Veillon, Stoneman, and Beall suggest, they leave with more than a photograph or final assignment; they carry a lasting relationship with the past that shapes how they see the world and their place within it.\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp dir=\u0022ltr\u0022\u003EAt the Lorraine American Cemetery in Saint-Avold, a Georgia Tech undergraduate laid a wreath at the headstone of the great-grandfather he never met, one of 14,246 U.S. service members buried there. \u0026nbsp;Across courses led by professors Jennifer Orth-Veillon, Timothy Stoneman and Jon Beall, Georgia Tech-Europe Summer 2026 students moved beyond dates and statistics to connect with the human stories of two world wars, often uncovering their own.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp dir=\u0022ltr\u0022\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Georgia Tech-Europe connects students to local sites and personal and shared histories of World Wars I and II."}],"uid":"36779","created_gmt":"2026-07-27 17:49:49","changed_gmt":"2026-07-27 17:51:46","author":"tcran3","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","location":"Atlanta, GA","dateline":{"date":"2026-07-27T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2026-07-27T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"680680":{"id":"680680","type":"image","title":"Matthew Ramsey at the family memorial ceremony ","body":null,"created":"1785173478","gmt_created":"2026-07-27 17:31:18","changed":"1785173584","gmt_changed":"2026-07-27 17:33:04","alt":"Matthew Ramsey squats next to a white tombstone with a US American flag and French flag on either side. In the background there are many other white cross tombstones. 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