On April 28th, Republican Congressman David Dreier Delivered the following Statement for the Congressional Record congratulating the Arcadia High School Constitution Team:
M. Speaker, I rise today to congratulate the Arcadia High School (AHS) Constitution Team on their first place finish in the 23rd annual “We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution,” contest which was held in Washington, D.C. this past weekend and concluded Monday evening.
The AHS team represented the entire state of California in the competition, which tests students’ knowledge of the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights and American democracy. After spending time with this outstanding group of students last week, I was confident they would take their knowledge of and dedication to learning about the Constitution and turn it into a great win for Arcadia and California.
After winning local and state competitions, these students proved themselves champions at the final competition here in our nation’s capital. The City of Arcadia and the entire San Gabriel Valley should be very proud of these outstanding students.
On Monday, after three days of simulated congressional hearings testing the students’ knowledge of constitutional principles, which were judged by a panel of constitutional scholars, lawyers, journalists and government leaders, the AHS team was announced the winners of this year’s competition.
I believe very firmly in the tremendous importance of understanding our history and the principles on which our nation was founded. These students should be commended for their mastery of our founding documents and the words of our founding fathers, and I enthusiastically congratulate them on their success.
The AHS Constitution Team’s victory is a testament not just to the hard work and dedication of these students, but also the guidance and commitment of their teacher Kevin Fox and coaches Gary Kovacic, Jim Romo, Bob Garrett and Karyn McCreary.
The members of the AHS Constitution Team are: Robel Abdella, Wini Addanki, Pallavi Bugga, Madyson Cassidy, Andrew Chang, Winston Chang, Greg Chen, Ruodi Duan, Daphne Fan, Kathy Garcia, Jamie Griswold, Derek Ha, Jennifer Hang, Lauren Hanna, Frank Huang, Rayla Hylbom, Michael Kallin, Amanda Kallis, Jesse Li, Andrew Lin, Sangavi Pari, Tim Semenov, Joanna Shen, Kiko Sunata, Bonnie Tam, Andrew Taylor, Catherine Tong and Shen Wang.