July 19, 2007

Project Citizen

Eighth graders learn about changing public policy

By Eileen Chen
Special to the Times

When my Bret Harte Middle School eighth grade classmates and I first heard about Project Citizen from our teachers, Ms. Goldman (also known as Goldie) and Mrs. Blackwood, some of us were bouncing off our seats and ready to get started.

Mrs. Blackwood’s and Ms Goldman’s classes prepare their Project Citizen boards. Group leader Henry Chang is far left walking back to his group. In the foreground from the left are Romin Oushana, Christopher Nijmeh, Sean Quinn and Kristen Koolpe discuss with their group leader, Sean Quinn. In back, from left, are Beniel Tamraz, Sean Carey and Eileen Chen planning the layout of their board, and from right are Kailey Erickson, Courtney Krail, Erika Ghose and Fumiya Kai, who wait in line to use the paper-cutter.

Others were very excited, and the rest frankly thought, “What did it matter, anyway? It’s just another project to do out of one million projects we’ve already done.”

After we read the rules in the Project Citizen booklet, I felt pretty apprehensive about a project that would take 12 weeks. Guided by Team Leader Kairav Sinha and advised by our two core teachers, we had to choose a public policy problem and create four display boards to show the process from problem to solution.

The topic we chose was better enforcement of the law in animal testing labs. We selected a group leader to be in charge of each of the four display boards: Henry Chang led the group for the first board, Explaining the Problem; I was put in charge of the group for the second board, Examining Alternative Policies; Kimberly Tobias was selected to lead the third group, Propose Public Policy; and Sean Quinn was chosen to be responsible for the fourth board, Developing an Action Plan.

On Friday of each week we spent approximately an hour and a half working on Project Citizen. We gathered research, and each group leader guided their particular group. Sinha ensured that the display boards came together as one team and not as four different teams. He also sent letters to the representatives in the California legislature, created the petition and assembled our documentation binder that contained all our sources of information and research.

As the school level competition took place in our cafeteria, we were all extremely excited and realized that Project Citizen was definitely much more than just a school project. It was a chance to make a change in public policy, and we were determined to win.

It was the only one out of the three competitions—school, state and national levels—that included an oral presentation. There were two other two teams, one led by Naomi Atkin dealing with No Child Left Behind and the other led by Aditi Prabhakar on the Patriot Act.

Our team won! After we received the judges’ comments, we continued to improve our display boards for the state level. Former San Jose City Councilmember Charlotte Powers sent our board in to compete in the state level. We won over more than a dozen competitors in California, not by oral presentation, but by following the rules: lots of research, attractive, informative visuals and well written articles and graphs.

Currently, our board is being judged in Boston in the national competition, and it will go to all the states in a traveling showcase. We will know the results on Aug. 9.

Sinha summed it all up when he stated, "I think that the one thing everyone learned from Project Citizen was the importance of teamwork. I don't think that my role as team leader was as important as the contributions of each and every person in the team. Our success at the state competition was thanks to the effort of our team members, and the support of our teacher-advisors, Mrs. Blackwood and Ms. Goldman."

My classmates and I learned a phrase during our eighth grade social studies class that we never really believed until we had completed Project Citizen: We all can make a difference. All of us have something wonderful to contribute to the world.

For more information on Project Citizen, go to the following Web site: http://www.civiced.org/index.php?page=introduction.

Editor’s Note: Eileen Chen, who will be heading to Leland High School as a freshman this fall, wrote this article for the Almaden Times at the behest of her teachers Ms. Goldman and Mrs. Blackwood.