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Just a few weeks ago, Nebraska Wesleyan University student James Hamrick was rehearsing lines for the rock musical “Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson.”

The summer theatre opportunity in his native city of Houston, Texas, would add another experience to his already impressive resume.

But an interesting change of events has Hamrick changing his summer plans.

Nebraska Wesleyan University’s Symphonic Band took a history lesson like no other they’ve taken.

"This will undoubtedly be an experience that our students will never forget," said NWU band director Sam Zitek.

On the 68th anniversary of D-Day, the band traveled to Normandy to commemorate the 1944 Allied Invasion and liberation of France.

It was 2:20 a.m. — well beyond Sheryl Rinkol’s bedtime. Sleep wasn’t an option as she listened to ocean waves slap the side of her cruise ship while it floated 2 ½ miles above the Titanic wreckage.

“It was very surreal,” said Rinkol, assistant director of Nebraska Wesleyan University’s Cooper Center. “It made me think about my own mortality.”

Final exams were barely graded when a group of Nebraska Wesleyan University students and their professors boarded a plane to Australia for an academic trip on the country’s history, culture and sports.