John Jay Model Congress

On Saturday, March 12th the John Jay Debate Club hosted their 7th annual Model Congress and it was a great success. A model congress may not seem like the most thrilling thing in the world at first, after all, the actual one appears to move at the pace of a snail, if not slower. However, as a member of the debate club I knew that debates could be extremely fun, and that, added with the promise of extra credit made me decide along with several of my friends that going would be in our best interest.

At the event, participants were separated into four committees based on interest: Judiciary which dealt with civil rights issues, Energy and Commerce which was eventually merged with Judiciary, Foreign Relations, and Education and Health. It would be within these committees that people would be debating over bills concerning current political issues such as gun control, health care, the war on terror, and more. At first most people in my committee were quiet as they were still getting used to the environment and the setup of the debates, but very quickly as controversial opinions began to fly around the room, things quickly began to heat up and became much more entertaining. By the time lunch time rolled around, our committee was filled with energy, and even as we enjoyed our pizza and soda we still couldn’t help but continue to debate, albeit on less serious issues, such as if pancakes are better than waffles, and whether or not the conscious being becomes nonexistent during sleep.

Afterwards, in a unique opportunity, we were treated to a guest speaker, the ex-senator Terry Gipson. He talked to us about how real-life politics works, and people were given the opportunity to ask him questions they may have had about politics, or on his views on political issues.

Finally, after one last hour of debating in the small committees, everyone came together into one giant committee to debate bills that had previously passed in the smaller committees and to give out awards. In the Judiciary/Energy and Commerce committee, the distinguished delegates, or best speakers were Jasmine King and Connor Walton who placed first and second respectively, and in the Foreign Relations committee, the winners were Andrew Magnotta and Ritvi Shah, first and second respectively. Lastly, in the Education and Health committee, there were three winners due to its large size and these were Amy Zhou, Carly Schneider, and Pia Krishnamurti who were first, second, and third respectively. Awards were also given out for Overall Outstanding Delegates, or the best speakers overall, and these went to Alex Christen and Gino Colabatisto who were first and second respectively. Congratulations to everybody!

After the experience, I would definitely recommend it to everyone as not only does it look good on your resume, and not only could you could get extra credit for going, it could also benefit everyone in other more “real world” ways. As the bills discussed there concern actual political issues, they can help familiarize people with the issues that they might not pay as much attention to on a daily basis. This means that when it comes time for them to vote as an adult, they can cast a more educated vote, something that will benefit the country as a whole. Furthermore, by debating, people can learn methods of persuasion, something that everyone will need to use at some point or another in their lifetime. As for those who think it will be boring, I can attest that while I was there, laughter was a constant, and the word boring never even crossed my mind. In fact, once we got into the swing of things, it was actually pretty fast paced and we were certainly more efficient than real Congress.

© 2016 Amy Zhou. All rights reserved.