Mt. Carmel wins state mock congressional hearing match

Mt. Carmel School emerged as this year’s champion in the state mock congressional hearing competition that saw nearly a hundred students from three high schools on island competing for a shot at the nationals this April in Washington, D.C.

As part of the Public School System’s “We The People Program,” the competition is designed to simulate actual congressional hearings with a panel of CNMI attorneys and judges serving as judges.

Three schools took up the challenge in the state contest last Saturday: Mt. Carmel, Marianas Baptist Academy, and the Marianas High School. Mt. Carmel students narrowly defeated history classes from MBA and two classes from MHS.

Based on contest rules, the attorneys present a hearing question to a panel of students who will provide testimony on the hearing question followed by questions from the judges. At the end of the competition, the points are tallied and the school with the most points is declared the winner.

This year marked the second year of the competition in the CNMI.

Program coordinator Tim Thornbugh said all school teams practiced in the last four months to prepare for the state level competition.

Thornburgh said the turnout this year was “very favorable.” He expressed himself amazed at the skills of the CNMI students and is confident of their chances at the national level.

This year’s champion team, which will advance to the national contest, include:

Keol Buenpacifico, Hazel Doctor, Kevin Bautista, and Kevin Kim; who successfully presented testimony on unit 1;

Ryan Ortizo, So Yoon Karen Lee, Cedie, Chan and Rita Villagomez for unit 2;

Louise Villagomez, Daniel Macario and A Ram Yoo for unit 3;

Armalene Cabreros, Jalayne Benavente and Alfred Acosta for unit 4;

Chiaki Hirosawa, Augustine Chang and Vanessa Sablan for unit 5; and

Keno Iwa San Pablo, Lourence Camacho and Jonathan Sanchez, for unit 6.

Mt. Carmel’s teacher is Rosiky F. Camacho and their attorney coaches were Judy DLG. Torres, Joaquin DLG. Torres, and Vincent DLG. Torres.

The Mt. Carmel students will be traveling, all-expense paid, to Washington, D.C. in April. The trip will be funded by PSS through federal grants that support student competitions and by the Center for Civic Education, which sponsors the We The People textbook and the national mock congressional hearing.

Education Commissioner Dr. Rita A. Sablan was impressed with the higher order thinking skills that the students exhibited when responding to probing questions from the judges. She congratulated the students and their coaches for their excellent performance throughout the competition.