Seniors in the Political and Legal Education class taught by Mr. Christopher Blessing finished up their Model Congress experience on March 17th and 18th. It is something that was prepared for over the course of the whole of the year before the trip.
Beginning in the fall students crafted legislation on issues and programs they were passionate about. Those bills would be considered and debated at the Congress later in the year.
The first Model Congress event was called “Party Day”, held in December. Toms River Schools had students remain virtual so they attended from their respective schools. In the Media Center and D-8, South PLE participated by Zoom. The Congress was split into Democratic, Republican, and Independent party rooms. In these sessions throughout the day, two leaders of each party were chosen amongst the dozen delegates that tried out by making speeches to their members. South Republicans did not run anyone, but Democrats Madeline Cummings, Nash Finley, and Noah Hilsdorf gave speeches. Unfortunately none were chosen, but they represented their school well. Hilsdorf was chosen by the leadership to become one of their Party Whips, who would work to push party priorities at later events.
The next gathering was not until February 25th, so there was a lot of time to prepare. There were lessons on parliamentary procedure and ways to handle congressional proceedings.
During “Leadership Day” in February South sent the full class to take a chance at trying to be a chairperson of a committee to Rider University. Party Leaders spent the time plotting what legislation they were going to want to pass and what they were going to encourage their members to fail. If the parties could pass or fail 7 out of their 10 targeted bills they “won” Model Congress. All the bills submitted by the dozens of delegates to Model Congress were sorted into issues they most closely related to. Then, those groups were made into committees. The Senate hosted Commerce, Education, Judiciary, and Oversight and Government Reform committees. The House had the Government Reform, Health and Welfare, Science, Transportation and Infrastructure, and Ways and Means committees. Each committee needed two students to run the proceedings.
Every South PLEr who went up got selected:
Madeline Cummings for Senate Commerce Committee, Anthony Magano for House Science, Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Nash Finley for House Ways and Means Committee, and Dean Mabie for Senate Judiciary Committee
Between this event and the main Model Congress Session PLE went back to annotating bills from their specific committee, aiming to find pros and cons. The four chairs worked on practicing running a room. The thinking behind all of this was to have delegates ready to participate in debate on the different issues that were going to be discussed in their committees and to have our chairs prepared to control overzealous commentary.
On the 17th, the bus picked up the PLE classes from all three high schools and took them to Rider University first thing in the morning. Unfortunately, Mr. Blessing could not make it on the trip, so the other two schools’ advisors graciously helped out.
The delegation participated in a welcoming ceremony and then were split up into the different political parties for a half hour rally focused on energizing party membership. The independent party decided to name themselves the “MOMMY Party” and had one member, Anthony Mangano, from Toms River South attending, candy was tossed out and music was played. Democrats had cookies, cupcakes, orange juice, and karaoke including hits “Love Story” and “Delila”. Republicans handed out flags to members and then took them back at the end, also they gave elephant lapel pins and a few participants caught elephant socks thrown into the crowd. While all this was going on, committee chairs were meeting with Model Congress staff on how to carry out proceedings.
When the half hour was up, delegates went to their assigned committees to begin work on the different bills before them. Party Leadership and their Whips were sent to specific committees where their targeted legislation was located to advocate for their passage or failure. This happened on two occasions on Thursday for a few hours.
Lunch and Dinner were provided for free for students and that provided time to be social and catch up on the happenings of all the committees. The latter part of Thursday was reserved for full sessions of the House and Senate to pass bills the parties were targeting. Debate was extensive and detailed at times, but also comical and broken up by light moments.
Maddy: “I enjoyed being able to interact with people who had a wide variety of political views. Being able to discuss those views in a mature setting with a lot of great points given by each side was very encouraging. I also enjoyed my responsibility as chair of the Senate Commerce Committee and it really gave me a lot of insight into how facilitating debate can be important to get things done, which seems harder and harder to do today. I really enjoyed spending time with my other PLE classmates and getting to know them more in environments outside of school. I appreciated the opportunity given to me to go to Model Congress.”
Anthony: “Model Congress was a great experience, from moderating bills, to helping the Speakers count the votes, and seeing all of the passions and interests of these students honestly gave me hope for the future of our nation.”
Nash: “It was fun being able to lead the discussion for a lot of the bills. People are very passionate about these topics, so being able to oversee the debates was great.”
Dean: “I think being a chair was super fun, I was able to oversee all bills getting passed. It was a lot of working on bills and seeing all the different issues people care about. I had a great time at Model Congress.”
TR Schools had students leave at 8:30 that night. The bus ride included a birthday song rendition for now 18 year old Jake Hull, as well as the national anthem with color guard provided by Maddy Cummings and Noah Hilsdorf.
Friday started in a similar fashion with students getting to Rider by about 9:30. Students were sent back for another 2 and a half hours of committee meetings. This led to a free lunch and then 3 and a half hours of House and Senate sessions.
A closing ceremony convened all the delegates before the day was over. All parties passed or failed 7 bills and their leaders got special gavels as rewards. Certificates were given to party leaders and whips, including Noah Hilsdorf, as well. Committee Chairs Madeline Cummings, Anthony Magano, Nash Finley, and Dean Mabie got certificates marking their time. Sadie Zandman and Dean Mabie were also recognized for getting both their bills passed through the Senate or the House.
A long awaited and well enjoyed Model Congress ended and TRHSS walked away with both experiences and awards for their work. Congrats to all who went and thank you for representing our school in such high regard.
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