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After taking home first place in the We the People state championship earlier this month, Amador Valley High School’s competitive civics team is gearing up for the national competition in Washington D.C. coming up in April.
Foothill High School’s team will be the other school representing California in D.C. after taking second place at the state competition and securing the wildcard spot.
“It took this group a while to kind of find their footing, but they’re a terrific group and I’m really pleased to see their hard work pay off,” Stacey Sklar, an English teacher at Amador and coach to the team, told the Weekly. “It’s always an honor and very exciting to take a group of students to Washington, D.C. and watch them get to take this competition to the very end. I’m excited to do that with this group.”
We the People is a national educational program where students demonstrate their understanding of government and the Constitution by participating in simulated congressional hearings, according to the Center for Civic Education website.
Amador senior Fengyi Ruan told the Weekly that as a Singaporian citizen who just moved to the U.S. a few years ago, it was difficult explaining all of that and what the program is about to her family who went to support her at the state competition from Feb. 3 to Feb. 4. But after seeing her compete and win, Ruan said her family understood what this program means to her.
“Afterwards, my sister came up to me, she gave me a hug and she was like, ‘I get what you’re doing,'” Ruan said. “She understood what the competition was about and why understanding the American government is important and what we’re doing in this class. So yeah, that was really nice.”
Ruan said that she first got interested in joining the competitive civics team because she had heard nothing but great things about the program from alumni who said it is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. She also heard how the class covers a variety of subjects and that no matter what, she would be learning about something interesting.
Runab Dixit, another Amador senior who is also on the team along with Ruan, told the Weekly that his reasons for joining the team and program were similar to Ruan but that he also joined because he wanted to take his passion for history that he developed last year and his passion for understanding how the country has evolved over the years, and take it to the next level.
Dixit said that while he still doesn’t know if he wants to pursue a career in politics, at least in the class and in the program he is able to explore his love for civil rights and voting — especially given his similar background of recently becoming a U.S. citizen — all while learning skills that are preparing him for college.
After spending the countless weeks before the state tournament battling it out with Foothill — whom Amador lost to both at the district and regional level — and the countless hours during the state championship tournament working on securing the win, the two students said they are ready to put in the work before going to the national competition, which takes place from April 13-15.
“It’s going to be a lot of practicing as much as possible,” Dixit said. “I know my unit we met almost every day for all of January and so it’ll probably be putting in that same amount of effort going into April.”
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