HSLP 08 Day 7, Friday July 18

High School Leaders Program Class of 2008
Daily Update: Day 7, Friday, July 18
Reported by: Sonora Braun and McCullough Roach

    Today, we awoke to the last day of the Informed Citizen with Mr. McGuire. After a warm walk to the Engineering Building, we settled down to a morning of article presentations which sparked numerous discussions about the Governor's power compared to that of other components of Virginia's government. Then, we split into groups and made clever 'radio spots' favoring either Obama or McCain that targeted various audiences throughout Virginia. These were then critiqued by the class, and any areas of extreme or inappropriate content were pointed out. Altogether, many of these soundbytes could easily have been from actual campaigns.
    At lunch, we split into groups of six or more, each having one member of each culminating project topic. In these groups, we discussed each issue and proposed solution so that we could better understand the difficulties of each project. We returned to the classroom, where two College Republicans from Mary Washington University awaited us. Rebeka Blackwell and Samantha Bradshaw were both very informative and showed us how being a Republican can be on a mainly liberal campus. They also told us about the various functions, campaigns, and opportunities that they had attained because of the College Republican organization. 
    We met our new teacher, Dr. Tom Shields, who began class with a discussion regarding the 'social capital' decline in America since the mid-1900's. The class finally agreed that technology had made social capital sprawl and morph into a new type of community throughout the world. Then, we discussed the difference between 'Polis' and the 'Market' societies and pinpointed words that were associated with each type. This class was very interactive and sparked one of the most thought-out debates we had ever seen in a classroom.
    Once we returned to the dorms, we rode the trolley for a nice dinner downtown and walked around this cultural hotspot. Then, after our routine Starbucks run, we returned for a night of Fight Club and popcorn. Altogether, another successful day at Sorensen!

—Sonora Braun of Roanoke, Patrick Henry High School Class of 2009
    McCullough Roach of Amarillo, TX, Woodberry Forrest Class of 2009