On April 22, 13 students from the Ravenscroft Youth and Government (YAG) delegation participated in a legislative oversight simulation in partnership with the YMCA of the Triangle and the Carl Levin Center at Wayne State Law School in Michigan. 

Co-Director of College Counseling and YAG advisor Sean Kennedy provided the following recap of the event.

The simulation was a pilot experience and was the first of its kind for high school students in North Carolina. Our students acted as legislators tasked with exploring a scenario crafted by the Levin Center. As in real congressional oversight hearings, our students questioned guest witnesses from Raleigh-area government agencies and foundations to explore issues related to the scenario and to craft recommended actions.

Much like the YAG Annual Conference in February, this pilot provided our students a civic engagement experience that brought the material learned in our classrooms alive. Student feedback from the experience attests to the value of the simulation:

• “It was interesting to ask different witnesses questions and learn about a real-world situation. It was fun to be on the legislative part of things and consider how to potentially solve these problems.” 

• “I found formulating questions and reacting to the witnesses to be very interesting. Trying to imagine the gaps in the system and then really hearing what they are was actually informative and rewarding.”

Student participants in the pilot (pictured at right) were Ethan Erickson ’22, Mike Hollingshead ’23, Chloe Adams ’23, Ella Smith ’23, Sara Baende ’23, Jadyn Carmon ’23, Skyler Riley ’23, Andrew Guenard ’23, Helena Yang ’23, Brianna Donigan ’23,Arianna Shirak ’24, Sophia Hopper ’24 and Christina Graham ’23 (not pictured). 

These students demonstrated outstanding leadership and commitment to civic engagement through the pilot experience and their efforts will help future legislative oversight simulations of this kind be more successful!

The event was made possible by the support of Ravenscroft’s civic engagement grant from the J.W. Pope Foundation.