Friday marked the 25th anniversary of September 11, 2001, when terrorists hijacked multiple planes and crashed into the Twin Towers in New York City. Although most students did not live through the events themselves, the memory of the terrorist attacks still impacts many.
Tehya Romero, a student member of the Naval ROTC at USC and the co-executive director of Joint Assembly for Military Affiliated Students, said that JAMS hosts an annual 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb, where students gather at 6:45 a.m. to climb the steps at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
JAMS, a part of the Undergraduate Student Government, has hosted the stair climb annually since 2022. Attendees climb 2,977 steps to symbolize the 2,977 people, including first responders, that were killed on 9/11.
“I want every step that people take to be intentional because there is a meaning behind this,” Romero said. “In our generation, it’s 25 years since the event … we don’t have that memory. It’s more of our parents, and so we have to make sure that we honor this memory because it’s slowly turning into history for us.”
Romero said she often hears about 9/11 from those older than her, as does Kendal Graham, a junior studying in international relations.
“Even through conversations with my mom, I feel like there are a lot of times where it’ll come up,” Graham said. “‘Oh, well, that was pre-9/11,’ or ‘Oh, you know, after 9/11, this is when this changed.’”
Sophia Arias, a junior studying environmental science and health, and Aram Hamaya, a sophomore studying business of cinematic arts, said 9/11 continues to impact younger generations.
“A lot of different security issues that happened after 9/11 violated us as citizens, and we didn’t even know about it until after it already happened,” Arias said. “I think [9/11] is definitely affecting us now.”
Hamaya said he thought the Patriot Act, a bill passed to increase government access to civilian information to protect from terrorists, was 9/11’s biggest impact, affecting people of all ages.
“Especially as everyone is online now, there’s that level of [feeling like you are] being monitored, and now people are questioning, is that monitoring really beneficial, what are we sacrificing for ‘security?’” Hamaya asked.
Romero said hearing stories about major events like 9/11 is important and encouraged students to have conversations and hear out different perspectives, whether they attend the stair climb or not.
“I personally don’t know any firemen or firefighters from New York, but thinking about their courage and being really intentional about remembering [is important] because we don’t have anything tangible to remember,” Romero said. “Our parents might, but the only way we’re going to find out about that is if we talk to them about it.”
Edited by Miranda Huang, Sean Campbell and Katherine Contreras Hernandez.