Project Citizen To Make A Difference

From Syntax: Two groups of sixth-graders from the Northport-East Northport School District presented their civic education projects for the Project Citizens Showcase at the NYC Bar Association in Manhattan on May 24. Presenting students Isabella Bica, Kailey Ciszek and Samantha Yolango from Northport Middle School and Anjolina Buttacoli, Lily Eagan and Kate Karp from East Northport Middle School completed this project within the district’s Investigate program, which is a challenging enrichment program that emphasizes higher level thinking skills, problem solving activities and cooperative learning techniques.

For this semester-long project, students were required to identify an issue of public policy in their community that concerned them, research the problem, and interview community members in order to learn more about the issue. Groups then presented their projects to a panel of civic experts at the Tuoro Law center earlier this spring. Two of the groups — “Ban Cat Declawing in New York” and “School Crossing Guards” — were encouraged by program facilitators Frangitsa Bertos and Brianne Furstein and Northport High School law teacher David Scott to continue on to the Project Citizen Showcase.

This showcase included students from elementary to high school age, and was coordinated by Debra Lesser, the executive director of the Justice Resource Center; an organization established to help implement law-related education projects that positively impact students, and aids students in learning about the government and their role and responsibilities as citizens.

Each group had the opportunity to present to a panel of expert judges, and answer questions about their chosen topic. The judges were impressed with the students’ hard work and in-depth knowledge of their chosen issues.

When asked why taking action is important, student Lily Eagan spoke up. “Because it’s our community,” she said, “it’s the place that we live. We want it to be the best that it can be for future generations.”

At the end of the showcase, Isabella, Kailey and Samantha earned the “Best Designed PowerPoint” award for their presentation about banning cat declawing in New York.