On December 11th, We The People went down to the University of Louisville to compete in the Kentucky State Championships. This competitive class is run by Mrs.Boimann-Hennies, and it is based on groups answering questions using the Constitution.

The competition was held in the Mcconnell Center on campus. This year the Birds took home a 16th state championship win with 15 wins in a row.

During competition, there are six units, each made up of 3 students. Going in front of 2 or 3 judges, these units have an opening statement that’s 4 minutes long. Then, the judges ask them follow up questions.

The judges do their scoring based on the individual unit’s knowledge of the Constitution, Constitution connections, and the groups supporting evidence to their question.

The highest score achieved by Highlands this competition was a perfect score of 60/60. This group included seniors Betsy Sellers, Zoie Barth, and Elizabeth Schwalbach.

Kate Eckerle, who is also in the class, reflected on the experience at the competition.

Eckerle states, “It felt really good that your hard work paid off, and I was really happy with the results. You do all that you can do, and obviously it’s nerve racking in the moment. Afterwards its rewarding that all your hard work paid off.”

Schwalbach, who was a part of the group who got the perfect score, talked about the feeling of success and her thankfulness for BH.

Schwalbach states, “The most fun thing is being able to work with such amazing and passionate young men and women and see such amazing results from our hard work (and loads of stress)! BH is an incredible teacher and I give so much credit to her and her guidance and understanding of government and the Constitution. She’s incredible to say the least.”

BH discussed how she thought her students did as a whole, and the strong points she thought the teams had.

BH said, “I think they did excellent. From a point standpoint, we earned 92% of the available points from the judges. From a teacher perspective, I’m very impressed with the most was that everybody contributed equally to the conversation, we did a great job with specific evidence and analysis, and there weren’t any questions that were asked at the competition that threw us off our game.”

Since they will be going to Nationals in Washington D.C in the spring, BH discussed how she is going to help her students have the most success going into the competition.

She stated, “We will get a whole new round of questions to prepare at the end of January. What we’re going to be doing before that is spend the month of January basically doing a deep dive into all the potential questions that could be asked for each of the six units particular areas of focus. One of the things we’re going to do is go back to the Constitution again, refresh our memory of what is says, and then just try to compile as many as historical and contemporary examples as possible. That way, once those questions are released on the last day of January, we already have a giant bank of research.”

We The People brought home Highlands another excellent state win, and they will continue to work hard together for the National competition in 2019.