Amador Valley advances to ‘We the People’ finals in Washington, D.C. competition

Amador Valley High School advanced to the championship round of the 2013 “We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution” national finals last night in Washington, D.C., finishing two days of extensive presentations before judges at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., just outside the capital.

Today, 10 teams will vie for first place in the academic competition, where students demonstrate their constitutional knowledge during simulated congressional hearings. The championship round will take place in congressional hearing rooms on Capitol Hill.

Coached by social studies and civics teachers Brian Ladd and Mairi Wohlgemuth, this is Amador’s 12th time to compete in the national finals as the California high school champions and serves as the culminating event of the program that has taken much of the students’ and faculty’s time since the class started last August.

Since New Year’s, the team has spent at least 25 hours a week practicing and preparing, first for the state finals which it won in Bakersfield on Feb. 9, and since then readying for the finals this weekend and today against 52 other high schools from the U.S. and its territories.

Nearly 1,400 high school students have gathered in the capital to participate in the 26th annual We the People national finals.

During presentations Saturday and Sunday, the initial field of 56 teams has been reduced to 10 finalists based on the combined scores of each class over the past two days of intense examination of their constitutional knowledge.

In the competition, students demonstrate their knowledge of constitutional issues before simulated congressional committees composed of constitutional scholars, lawyers, historians and public officials. Students complete a comprehensive course of study on the Constitution to qualify for the competition.

Tonight, awards will be presented to the first- through 10th-place classes and to the top-scoring non-finalist classes for each of the six units of curriculum and in each of five geographic regions. The awards ceremony will take place at the Center for the Arts Concert Hall at George Mason University.

The George Mason Award will be given to the class with the highest score in answering a question about the Founder from Virginia, who drafted the first Virginia state constitution, authored the Virginia Declaration of Rights and served as a delegate at the Constitutional Convention. The awards ceremony will take place on Monday evening at the Center for the Arts Concert Hall at George Mason University.

The 2013 We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution National Finals is partially funded by the effort of teachers, students, parents, and We the People state coordinators to secure community sponsors. Funding is also provided by the Center for Civic Education, state donors, and the Fund for Freedom and Democracy in honor of the Honorable Patricio M. Serna, justice of the New Mexico Supreme Court.

Five of the 10 finalists competing this morning on Capitol Hill are Corona del Sol High School, Tempe, Ariz.; Denver (Colo.) East High School; Trumbull High School, Trumbull, Conn.; Cathedral High School, Indianapolis; and Grant High School, Portland, Ore.

The other five competing this afternoon are Vestavia Hills High School, Vestavia Hills, Ala.; Amador Valley High School; Maine South High School, Park Ridge, Ill.; Plainfield High School, Plainfield, Ind.; and Tahoma Senior High School, Covington, Wash.

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