Eleven plucky Oasis Academy high school students recently competed in the We the People: Citizen and The Constitution District Invitational contest, a program for civic education, bringing home the prestigious Northwestern Regional Award.
"As the advisor of the group, I'm always stressed about what they know, what they don't know and this year in particular because of the COVID and social distancing," said Grimes, "I get to the point where this is just a hot mess and in typical form, the kids just do remarkably well. The last couple weeks they just brought it together and was impressive to watch."
Generally, says Grimes, the students participating in the competition from other schools are seniors. "oasis students are Freshman and Sophomores who go against seniors, so for us to receive the Northwest Regional Award and to finish 4th overall was really pretty cool, especially considering there were seven schools and many of them were much larger than us," he said.
Rochelle Tisdale, chief academic officer at Oasis Academy, said she is very proud of the students who participated in the virtual competition against all the 4A schools. "We have 9th and 10th grade students competing and all the other schools have 11th and 12th graders competing," she said. "We consistently place high with younger participants. They do an amazing job and Eric Grimes works hard to prepare them."
In other schools, underclassmen participate in We the People, but don't compete. They spend time learning and sharpening their research skills, then as seniors, they step into the competition. Oasis Academy has one team with eleven students with each student covering twice the amount of material as students from the larger schools.
During the competition, students address topics such as the philosophical and historical foundations of the American political system; how the Framers created the constitution, including the influences of early theorists such as Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, and Locke; how the Constitution has changed to further the ideals contained in the Declaration of Independence; how have the values and principals embodied in the Constitution shaped American institutions and practices, Bill of Rights, the future of America and what does it mean to be a citizen, and what are the challenges that face American Constitutionalism in the 21st Century.
Two years ago, Oasis teacher Amy O'Flaherty, started a We the People unit in the 8th grade. Her goal was to "build a foundation in middle school for us going forward in the high school, so next year these winning students will act as the coaches for the incoming team and to help the new kids get prepared," said Grimes. Grimes acts as the advisor, teaching the class and clarifying case law and constitutional issues. "It's really on them, they just practice and hone their skills, each week it just gets better and better," he said.
The guiding principle of the We the People program is civic engagement, which the organization quotes Thomas Ehrlich in saying, "working to make a difference in the civic life of our communities and developing the combination of knowledge, skills, values, and motivation to make that difference. It means promoting the quality of life in a community, through both political and non-political processes."
During the virtual awards ceremony, organizers said there were a total of 350 secondary students, 17 teams, and 55 volunteer judges participated in the process during the contest, with 120 people actively engaged in civic discourse at any one time during the day.
Congressman Mark Amodei presented a virtual congratulation speech during the awards ceremony, telling students, "What you are doing is a phenomenal building block to take over for all us old guys who are much closer to the end than to the beginning, Congratulations to the winners, and let's not have any raucous behavior during this virtual awards ceremony."
The Southern Regional Award went to Cimarron Memorial High School, while the Northwest Region Award was given to Oasis Academy. Judge's gave feedback for the performance by Oasis Academy, with one judge stating during the ceremony, "You all know the Constitution like the back of your hand. Seriously, your Constitutional application absolutely blew me away. Great Work."
Oasis students participating in the competition: Julie Bell, Stacie Bogdanowicz, Brandon Calkins, Matthew Christopherson, Andrew Catlin, Claudia Esposito, Aubrey Vaughn, Hunter McNabb, Abril Ugalde, Lilyann Lawson, and Tylie Norcutt.
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