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Twenty-eight Sheridan High School students are poised to deal some serious damage to their competitors at the upcoming national We the People competition.
On April 5th from 6-8 pm, the We the People team will be hosting a dinner at Sheridan High School. There will be chili, cinnamon rolls, a silent auction and a raffle ticket drawing. Anyone who purchases a raffle ticket stands to win four round-trip tickets from Sheridan to Denver courtesy of Fly Sheridan, $250 cash, and a luggage set.
The juniors and seniors head to the University of Maryland on April 21st to test their knowledge of the U.S. Constitution against students from across the country. For the third year in a row, Sheridan has taken first at districts and state and this year’s team should make for fierce competition in D.C.
The eager students have been working tirelessly since the beginning of the school year for the opportunity to fly out to Washington, D.C. They are the third Sheridan team in a row to do so.
We the People is “an academic competition that engages participants in their knowledge and application of constitutional issues and questions,” said SHS Government Teacher and WTP mentor/coach Tyson Emborg.
Each team is made up of six units, and each unit is three or more students. The units are then posed a series of questions beforehand relating to different constitutional themes, such as voting, civic participation, and philosophy to name a few. The units—with the help of Emborg, outside mentors and their fellow students—write answers to each question in the form of a three-paragraph essay, which after being fine tuned as much as possible is presented to a panel of judges.
The judges then ask the students questions related to their understanding of their topic, and the teams are ranked holistically based on their performance.
“The hardest part of We the People is definitely the Q&A,” said junior Noah Gustafson. “It’s only six minutes, but it gets pretty intense.”
In order to achieve fund their trip to Washington, the students have been vigorously fundraising. On April 5th from 6-8 pm, the We the People team will be hosting a dinner at Sheridan High School. There will be chili, cinnamon rolls, a silent auction and a raffle ticket drawing. Anyone who purchases a raffle ticket stands to win four round-trip tickets from Sheridan to Denver courtesy of Fly Sheridan, $250 cash, and a luggage set.
If you’ve yet to purchase a ticket, don’t worry! They will be sold before the drawing to any who are interested. It’s not all fun and games, though. To Emborg, the academic value of We the People is not easily overstated. “I’ve yet to see a program that engages and challenges students to the degree of We the People,” he said. Jack Clement La Rosa, a junior at SHS, had this to say: “It’s been a great experience. I’ve made lots of new friends and learned a lot. I have a much more comprehensive understanding of our Constitution and how we’ve developed as a nation, both of which will help me as a millennial voter.”
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