High School Leaders Progam 2007: Day 13

    As our experience at the Sorensen Institute nears its end, all of the members of the High School Leaders Class of 2007 are beginning to fully understand the enormity and importance of the knowledge we have gained over the past two weeks. Today’s start was marked by a highly favorable late departure from our dorms to the Miller Center for Public Affairs. The 9:15 departure allowed most of the students to get in a few, valuable extra minutes of sleep.
    At the Miller Center for Public Affairs, which is located about 10 minutes from Bice Hall, we were shown the different Presidential projects that are being worked by a staff of professors, historians, and interns. The two main projects being completed by the Miller Center are called the Presidential Oral History Project and the Presidential Recordings Program. Mark Silverstone, one of the Directors of the Presidential Recordings Program, displayed several of the recordings from President Nixon and President Johnson. All the recordings are published in a under-friendly flash player format which produces both an audio recording as well as a written transcript. Furthermore, the Sorensen Institute members were given tours of Miller Center.
    After we traveled back to our dorms, we were immediately placed into our respective Democratic or Republic party caucus. The day before we had been assigned a Senator in the Virginia Senate in preparation for today’s Mock General Assembly. The General Assembly turned out to be an intriguing and incredible experience. Initially, the Senators were placed into two committees: The Committee on Regulation and the Committee on Redistribution. The night before, students were required to submit at least one bill that would be discussed during the Mock General Assembly. After electing party leadership as well as committee chairs, which included the Committee on Regulation surprisingly electing a member from the minority Democrats to be the chair, the committees decided which bills would pass and be debated during the general session. During the general session, the Republican Party used their majority to shoot down seemingly every single Democratic action. However, in the end, the Democrats proved to be victorious with help from the Governor’s veto power.
    During the evening, the Culminating Project groups practiced their presentations in front of Marc, Kim, and Shonda. The critiques they received will help them on Friday during the actual presentation to Virginia policy makers. Even though Sorensen has only been in session for two weeks, the students have proved themselves, and seem able to take on anything at this point.
— Eesan Balakumar, York High School