High School North students in the Legal and Political Experiences class took first place in the state-wide “We The People” competition. These students will compete in the national competition in Washington, D.C., in April.
The North students include Anitha Ahmed, Melisa Azak, Chloe Barz, Josh Bloom, Alison Burns, Akash Goyal, Gary Li, Jacqueline Litwin, Thea Ma, Migal Manickaraj, Drew McClendon, Avery Miller, Sree Nallanukala, Rohit Tallapragada, Gopal Velala, Nitin Vijayakumar, Amy Xu, and Stanford Zhou.
Also Shivani Badgi, Nikita Barde, Chris Barroso, Aditi Desai, Morgan Francis, Addy Guo, Anurag James, Caroline Klimek, Vikram Krishna, Caroline Lee, Rachel Lipka, Anna Mehrabyan, Nilesh Pandey, Jessica Pe, Komal Sankla, Gokul Tiruchanur, Tim Wang, and Sarah Yue.
The class’ teacher, Albert Paulsson, was assisted by Linda Dean, teacher of AP government and politics; and Greg Bugge, teacher of AP United States history.
The “We The People” competition examines students’ knowledge and understanding of the historical foundations and philosophical principles of the Constitution and the federal government and challenges them to apply and connect that academic scholarship to contemporary citizenship and governmental issues in American society.
For the last several months, the North students have been researching and studying sources such as the United States Constitution, the Federalist Papers, selected historical events and Federal government policies, and numerous United States Supreme Court decisions. They have been writing arguments and citing evidence to support their positions, as well as rehearsing their oral presentations and cross-examination responses.
“The preparation for the ‘We The People’ competition provides the students on these teams with opportunities to enhance and demonstrate their 21st Century Competencies,” says Victoria Kniewel, superintendent of WW-P schools.
