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ROCKVILLE, Md. - Media outlets from around the world covered the inauguration from every angle, including four students from Rockville High School who got the opportunity of a lifetime covering a moment in history they'll never forget.

The students had been covering the election very closely and they said it was only appropriate to cover it to the very end. The four students were the only ones in the Montgomery County (web | news) school system to cover the events leading up to the inauguration.

Three weeks before the inauguration, the young journalists at Rockville High School's Rampage applied for a press credential to cover the events. At that time, they thought it would be a long shot, but soon found out they were wrong.

"It was like hitting the lottery. I got the email. I started opening it up. I thought for sure it was going to be, 'Sorry we can't do anything for you.' About 2 paragraphs into the email it became clear to me that we had received some media credentials. I was astounded to find out we got 4," said newspaper advisor Peter Daddone.

Those passes gave them access to the youth concert, the opening ceremony and the swearing in. "It was exciting to feel like I was an authentic journalist," said student Adrienne Lane.

Like the rest of the journalists covering the inauguration, they started their day early. By 3 in the morning, they were on the Metro ready to put their reporting and photojournalism skills into high gear. "Really tried to be observant about everything going around, and I guess I learned a lot of that from class because you never know where a story can come from," said student Polly Ingram.

"We got great crowd shots - just all the chaos, everybody around waving flags and stuff so it was cool," said student Molly Carey. But that wasn't all that struck them. "I was maybe less than 200 feet from the stage and they were all these other publications with these huge cameras, they had the biggest lenses I've ever seen in my life so that was intimidating," said Ingram.

Still able to keep their cool, they came out with some memorable photos and stories they plan to use in their upcoming issue.

The Rampage staff also plans to share everything they gathered during the inauguration to other schools in Montgomery County. The ultimate goal is to publish a historical book, documenting the event through the eyes of students.

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