Parents and students of Milford High School celebrate their victory at the 2008 "We the People...the Citizen and the Constitution" competition on Jan. 11 in Concord.

Students from Nashua North, John Stark Regional and Milford High Schools braved wind and sleet to make their way to the Legislative Office Building in Concord to compete in the 2008 NH state finals of the “We the People…The Citizen and the Constitution” competition on Jan. 11.

The competition, formatted in the same manner as the district competition, is much like a congressional hearing, where panelists—the school teams—testify before, and are judged by, a “congressional” panel.

The students’ “testimony” is based on their study of the US Constitution throughout the school year. Topics cover any part of the founding document. They then receive a list of potential questions to be asked by the judges and prepare brief presentations based on that list. They do not know at the time of their preparation which questions will be asked, so they must be ready to answer them all.

Judges, who receive a list of questions that they can ask students, choose one, pose it to the students, await the students’ response and then ask their own questions regarding the subject matter they have chosen. During this secondary questioning, students must improvise and think on their feet, utilizing the knowledge that they’ve acquired during class study and competition preparation.

Judicial panels at the event include a wide array of members from the legal, political and educational community. Among the panelists at the Jan. 11 event were justices of the NH Supreme Court, educators, attorneys, retired justices and diplomats and members of the state legislature.

Students warmed the cold January day with debate over the nature of a representative democracy. Howard Zibel, NH Supreme Court counsel and long-time supporter of the program, believes that this is just the kind of thing young people should be focused on.

“The value of the program is the knowledge that the students take away [from the experience],” said Zibel. “They learn to think critically about the Constitution and how the government works.”

At the end of the day, with students tired, nervous and excited, they were brought into a hearing room where Director of the New Hampshire Bar Foundation David Snyder announced the winning team, Milford High School. The Milford team will represent New Hampshire on May 3 at the national competition in Washington, D.C. 

Snyder presented the students with a check for $1,000 to assist them in raising funds for their trip to Washington in the spring.

NHBA Thanks Volunteers

The Bar Association would like to thank those that helped with the “We the People…” events, as judges and as support volunteers. Without their assistance, the events, coverage, and most importantly, the education of all involved, would not have taken place. Thank you.

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