Sonya Bernard-Hollins took students on an immersive journey. As they stood in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C., the students of Western Michigan University had already spent days connecting the history of Dr. Merze Tate to their individual assignments. Caiden Schoen was one of them.

As he read the inscriptions of President Abraham’s speeches etched into the walls encompassing the memorial, he had already learned that Merze Tate memorized his Gettysburg Address as she walked three miles to school each day along the rural roads of her hometown of Blanchard, Michigan.

“She stood up against the barrier’s society had set making a better future for everyone. Even her ancestors were trailblazers who pushed forward the civil rights movement in their own ways,” Schoen said in his final presentation about her life.

Schoen and the other students on the educational journey didn’t simply study history, they followed the footsteps of Dr. Merze Tate. They experienced what she had been teaching students nearly a century ago: the world becomes a much bigger classroom when you go see it for yourself.

There were classified files. There were missions. There were clues to follow, places to explore and stories hiding in plain sight.

And by the final class, the students of Study in the States: Classified: History Through the Life of Merze Tate adventure weren’t simply reporting on what they had learned, they were debriefing a mission. That was exactly the point.

Western Michigan University’s Lee Honors College offers Study in the States programs that provide students with interactive experiences designed to enrich their educational journey beyond the traditional classroom. Bernard-Hollins, the founder of the Merze Tate Explorers was invited to develop and teach a Study in the States course during WMU’s 2026 spring break. For one week, she led a van packed with college students through an immersive exploration of the life and legacy of Dr. Merze Tate — scholar, educator, author, journalist, photographer, world traveler and one of Western Michigan University’s most extraordinary graduates.

They didn’t just talk about where Tate had been, they went there in a journey that touched nearly every chapter of her life.

Led by Bernard-Hollins, students traveled to Blanchard, Michigan, where Tate was born, explored places connected to her education and career, and stood at her resting place in her hometown cemetery. She had taken her own Explorers on that same journey over the past 18 years.

The college students then traveled to such places as Washington, D.C., a city deeply connected to Tate’s professional life. Students toured the White House and U.S. Capitol, explored the National Museum of African American History and Culture, and added some adventure to the experience at the International Spy Museum. History became geography. Geography became experience. And experience made Tate real.

Some of the students may have first recognized the name Merze Tate from WMU’s Merze Tate College in her honor. By the end of our journey, they knew far more than her name. They knew the roads she traveled. They understood the institutions connected to her story.

These investigators were no longer students simply learning about Merze Tate, but had become experts of her story because they had seen portions of it for themselves.

In her final report, Mia Valderrama Garcia wrote:
“Merze Tate achieved so much in her life, yet she does not get the recognition she deserves for it. Western Michigan University does have a college named after her but that was done a couple of years ago.

She left millions of dollars to this college yet all we know is her name not her story. She has a legacy of inspiring scholars with her first year’s teaching being the most fundamental.”