The Student Congress team won overall top delegation at the state capitol Nov. 7-9, and brought home the cup, which in a prestigious award given to a group of students. The team of students awarded with this recognition has the highest total points over the entire 3 day competition.

Throughout the competition, all of the Har-Ber delegates received superior or excellent awards in 4 different categories. Seniors Kerim Gales and Stephen Tate both won Speaker of the House, which is the highest position possible in Student Congress.

“Its really interesting to be able to go through a whole process of passing or not passing a bill,” said junior Drew Dodson.

Student Congress is an event that students from this school attend to learn more about the way the government creates bills. There is a mix of mostly high school students with a few college students.

This competition gives students an idea of what it would be like to be a congressman or woman. It’s based on debate tactics and is used to vote and convince the other students to agree with them on bills. Before students get to go “on the floor”, they have to campaign to get elected into office. Many students, like Dodson, got involved in this program from previously being in debate.

“I’ve competed in IPDA (what is IPDA) for two years now and I decided I wanted to branch out into new and different styles of debate,” said Dodson.

Students spent Sunday, Nov 7, traveling to the state capitol in Little Rock. The first night was spent with about 180 other kids, all campaigning at the Crowne Plaza Hotel.

“It went really well. Har-Ber excelled at Student Congress and I had a great time bonding with everyone that went,” said junior Jacob McDaniels

“As an observer, I took lots of notes and pictures and learned a lot,” said senior Xiomara Caldera. Caldera and seniors Kacie Jenkins and Noah Antony as well as juniors Lizzie Gonzalez, Turner McCrackin, and Tanner Passmore all attended the conference in Little Rock, but did not compete in any events.

“We meet once a year in Little Rock. That’s our Student Congress meet,” said    McDaniels.

The team competes in one event every year, this being the second year that students from our school have gone. Debate attends other conferences and events, but those are separate from the State Congress conventions.