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03/24/2022 12:00 AMDespite Covid challenges and changes, members of Branford High School (BHS) Model Congress (MC) have remained resilient and have been rewarded for their efforts. In February, 38 members traveled to Boston, MA to compete at the first live, in-person Model Congress conference in nearly two years. Among them, 9 returned with top conference awards -- including 8 gavels, the highest award possible - during the prestigious 2022 Harvard Model Congress event.
BHS MC founding father and AP History teacher Jim Petela called it "... an amazing comeback story of resilience and outstanding leadership by our senior presidents."
"Seeing how much [Petela] cares about this makes us want to work for him, and this club, and do whatever we can," said one of the presidents, Peyton Giordano.
She said the club also greatly appreciates the support of BHS Social Studies teacher David Gruendel and BHS Spanish teacher Alberto Cintron who assist Petela with advising BHS MC.
"We really could not have done this without all of our advisors. All three of them contribute so much to this club, and they're all just so passionate about it," said Giordano. "They really made me passionate about this. I am planning to study Political Science next year; and I wouldn't have been there without this club...it's one of the best things I've done at Branford High School."
Giordano is one of BHS MC's nine 2021-22 senior presidents, together with Josh Berdon, Tyler Jarvis, Sushant Kunwar, Ajla Mehmedovic, William Mollow, Grahm Reynolds, Veronica Smith and Alex Sweeney.
Since 1994, BHS MC members in grades 9 – 12 have trained, researched, and practiced for many hours as part of this extra-curricular club; in order to travel to Ivy League settings (including Yale, Harvard, and Penn) and pit themselves against other talented high school students, many from elite private schools. Students who stick with the work develop confidence and skills which support and validate the volumes of research, time and effort that goes into preparing for each Model Congress. That preparation is led BHS MC presidents together with the club's vice presidents, governors, junior governors, mayors and officers.
Petela notes that over 2500 students have participated in the program through the years, attending over 120 conferences and gathering over 500 awards, "...making Branford a formidable force at these competitive conferences."
BHS Model Congress, Covid Edition
As the current senior presidents can attest, the past nearly two academic years of studying separately and meeting online due the pandemic hasn't been the typical MC experience. In March 2020, Covid cancelled Penn Model Congress. From December, 2020 – December, 2021 all Model Congress conferences were held virtually, via Zoom.
"It was really hard, because when we had the pandemic, all the conferences were virtual, which led to not only to a disconnect, but a lack of excitement for the club," said Jarvis. "It didn't help that the conferences were online and from our house. I feel as though the Ivy League kids who run the conference were also thrown aback by trying to schedule a conference during a pandemic. There weren't only technical issues, there were scheduling issues and [committee] issues that happened during the conference. And accessing materials was hard for a lot of us attending the conference."
Even so, BHS MC made a strong showing at this academic year's first competition, the virtual 2021 Yale Model Congress in December. With 50 members in attendance for the two-day event, BHS MC took five awards, including one gavel. Due to previous scheduling, the final conference of the 2021-22 academic year, 2022 Penn Model Congress, is being held virtually March 24 – 26. Berdon will present a bill which he and Kunwar developed by working with a small group of BHS MC members.
For the Yale contest in December, Kunwar wrote a bill advocating for regulation of autonomous vehicles, as a member of the House Science Space and Technology Committee.
"I felt like it was relevant and definitely an interesting topic to get into," said Kunwar, who is interested in pursuing science-related fields and will attend Yale University next year.
Another president headed to an Ivy League school is Smith, who will be attending Penn (the University of Pennsylvania) in the fall, another site of Model Congress contests.
"I think that Model Congress has inspired all of us to broaden our academic horizons," said Jarvis, who'll attend George Washington University in D.C. next fall. "They have these different committees that focus on different topics. There's really something for everyone."
Reynolds, who is co-editor of the BHS school newspaper with Kunwar, said he plans to study journalism in college and to seek a minor among political science, ethics or public policy; all interests sparked by his time in Model Congress, where he focused much of his efforts on writing and research.
Winning at Harvard
The highlight for the year for the senior presidents was the 2022 Harvard Model Congress Feb. 24 – 27 because it was the only in-person contest of the year, held in Boston, MA.
"Coming back this year, it was important for the seniors to give the underclassmen a good Model Congress experience," said Jarvis.
Of all the senior presidents, only Jarvis and Mollow had the prior experience of attending a live contest prior to the pandemic. Jarvis said their peers "stepped up" at Harvard.
"These guys really stepped up because not only were they in the hardest committee, but we as a group of presidents had the position and the responsibility of teaching the underclassmen how to behave, how to act," he said. "We had to not only orient ourselves with the conference structure, but know it enough to teach the underclassmen. So it was difficult, but I think we were persistent in that effort and I think we succeeded."
"My first overnight trip was last month at Harvard," said Giordano. "I was supposed to go to [2020] Penn Model Congress but we shut down two weeks before the trip was going to take place."
Sweeney said it was his second Harvard Model Congress experience and first time in-person.
"It was kind of weird trying to convey this knowledge that I didn't have as much as I might have, had things been different with Covid," said Sweeney. "But I did like it. It was all enjoyable."
"We had a lot of kids go and it was the first in-person conference we've had in while," said Reynolds, who was also a gavel recipient. "Overall, it was very fun to be in Boston and a very good experience."
Seven of the senior presidents brought home gavels from the Harvard competition, including Jarvis, Reynolds, Kunwar, Mollow, Sweeney, Smith and Giordano. In addition, junior Nick Schettino won a gavel. Freshman Grace Grammatico earned an honorable mention/legislative award.
Giordano, who competed in district court at Harvard, said the in-person experience was definitely better than virtual.
"We had the excitement of competing against 10 teams from across the country," she said, adding that, during Covid, "We weren't even allowed to do club meetings in person. So finally, to be in an environment where you were debating again was such an exciting experience to get back to."
Putting in the Work
Most of the schools the club competes against offer Model Congress as an academic course taking place during school hours. BHS MC meets after school and usually long after the other extra-curriculars and team practices many members are involved in. Upperclassmen guide younger students in areas including speech writing, delivering a speech, crafting a bill, proposing amendents to bills, posing questions and working with others to come to a resolution so they'll be prepped for conferences, where the students meet in committee or full sessions of the House or Senate or can take part in the likes of district court mock trials.
"Something I was looking forward to when I became one of the presidents was helping out all the underclassmen," said Mollow. "It's really a pleasure to help out kids who are motivated and smart and they're just yearning for that knowledge."
With their time as BHS MC presidents now drawing to a close, Mehmedovic has some advice for next year's leadership.
"I think that next year the presidents should focus on making sure everyone's engaged and excited," she said. "There was a big freshman class this year, more than we ever had before, so it was more difficult than usual to get them into it. But I think, after Yale and going into Harvard, they really got into it and kind of fell in love with the club."
Sweeney also recommended any students who may not have considered joining BHS MC before to give it a try, as they will definitely come away the better for it.
"It's really improved my speaking skills a lot. I'm not going to be [studying] poli-sci or journalism, but public speaking is a great skill to have. This definitely made me more confident," said Sweeney.
For much more information on BHS Model Congress, or to become a sponsoring organization of the club or to make an individual donation to help members offset future conference costs, email jpetela@branfordschools.org