Westminster Students Raise the Bar at “We the People” Competition

It’s not every day that you see a group of 16 high school seniors who not only know their Constitution, but who can skillfully debate it too. Yesterday, Westminster Christian Academy’s team of seniors traveled to Columbia, MO, to compete in the Missouri Bar’s annual We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution state competition. Result – the students came away state champions and will head to nationals in April 2017.

2017 marks the 30th anniversary of the We the People competition. Every year, The Center for Civic Education’s nationally acclaimed We the People program enables students to better understand the history, philosophies, and evolution of our constitutional government. At the national finals, over 1,000 students from around the country will demonstrate their knowledge as they compete in simulated congressional hearings on government and the Constitution and Bill of Rights.

Westminster senior Claire Rebbe remarked on the opportunity to study more about our constitutional system. “We talked with a bunch of lawyers about the process of voir dire and all of the important things that go into the jury. It was a lot of reaching out to different types of people and seeing what their different takes on it [were].”

As title holder, Westminster’s team will advance to represent Missouri at the national We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution competition in Washington D.C. Over the years, Westminster teams have proven to be forces to contend with, having won 17 of 21 state competitions. Top national finishes for Westminster were in 2000 (sixth place), 2002 (second place), and 2010 (tenth place).

This year’s Westminster team members include: Rachel Berry, Sydney Bowden, Chelsea Caplinger, Sammie Davidson, Ethan Davitt, Sydney Driscoll, Erin Galakatos, Cate Hoogstraten, Tiffany Johnson, Emily Kessel, Alex Lawrence, Chris Moore, and Alyssa Shikles. The team is coached by Westminster’s upper school history professor Ken Boesch.