February 20, 2009

An Unlikely Student Hits Capitol Hill

By ERIC HOOVER

Todd Sollar is a quiet man, so February 10 made his palms sweat. He spent the day talking to strangers in a city he had never seen.

Mr. Sollar, 32, came here from Centerville, Ohio, to tell his story, which begins with the recent closing of the General Motors plant where he had worked for 11 years. It continues with his decision to enroll at Sinclair Community College, in Dayton. How it ends, he is not sure.

Last week he was in the nation's capital, stuck in an uncertain