Jack Zhang ’14
\nEE Co-Editor in Chief<\/p>\n
Disappointed couldn\u2019t describe the depth of emotion emanating from Trumbull High students during their bus ride home from Hartford on\u00a0December 18th. Downright devastated would be more like it. The students had been informed that they had placed second in the We the People state competition, an endeavor the team had prepared for during the entire first half of the year. Teammates leaned on eachother\u2019s shoulders, comforted by their friends, others cracked jokes\u00a0attempting to keep up morale, others were silent unable to even speak about what had happened.<\/p>\n
However, one member Beena Jacobs, remained optimistic and talked about the good the class could do with their skills from practicing for the competition even after it was over. \u201cWe could prepare the middle school We the People teams, go into impoverished neighborhoods and teach other schoolchildren, or participate in another competition. The possibilities are endless.\u201d Many others agreed with her, eager put to use their now intense historical background.<\/p>\n
It should come as no surprise then when Ms. Boland came into class on December 20th\u00a0with an important announcement, the entire class quickly became silent. She held in her hands the official scores of the competition, but also a proposal. Before she opened the envelope, she sat on a desk, and asked the group of 24 students, \u201c How would you guys feel about participating in another competition?\u201d She asked, \u201cIf we do, you would have to promise me to give it your all.\u201d Students, figuring Ms. Boland was referring to her newly founded Model Congress Club, agreed in unison.<\/p>\n
Then she read the scores.<\/p>\n
Trumbull\u2019s Unit 1 came in first place with 59 points out of 60. Unit 2 came in second, averaging 52.3 points. Then came Unit 3 who had placed in first, earning an average of 58.3 points. Unit 4 came in first with the average of 56.7 points. Unit 5 came in first place with the total of 56.3 points. And lastly Unit 6 came in second with the total of 57 points.\u00a0Students calculating the scores in their heads quickly scratched their heads, \u00a0as if to ask\u2026 \u201cWhat happened?\u201d<\/p>\n
Then the defining words came.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe won.\u201d<\/p>\n
At first nothing happened, as students mouths hung open in disbelief. Then as Ms. Boland\u2019s smiling expression did not change, the group began come upon the truth that they dared not believe.\u00a0At\u00a09:30, a late night call from the state director of the program explained the unit three\u2019s scores had been miscalculated when adding them up. One of the judges for unit 3 had written 43 instead of 53, creating a 10 point difference in scores. In a competition where only three judge\u2019s scores are averaged, 10 points is huge, which catapulted to Trumbull to victory by a 7 point margin.\u00a0Little did the students know, when Ms. Boland was talking about another competition, she was in fact referring to National competition in D.C.<\/p>\n
Then the room exploded.<\/p>\n
Friends from all the neighboring classrooms stampeded into C-14. Teammates exchanged full embracing hugs and cheers of joy. People began calling their mothers, and unit 5 teammates began Facetiming unitmate Camilla Edwards who had been in Florida at the time of the announcement.\u00a0Principal Guarino, who had walked in to congratulate the surprise victors, was almost drowned out by all the noise. The day before he had come into the classroom to tell a story from his youth about finding meaning even during defeat. \u201cI am extremely proud of you all\u2026 I guess you didn\u2019t need that story after all,\u201d he joked.<\/p>\n
As more and more students poured into the room to give their congratulations, a smiling Ms. Boland gave a sideways glance as if to say \u201cAre you okay with this?\u201d<\/p>\n
And Principal Guarino mouthed back \u201cLet them have their moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
As first day of February when the National questions were released, Ms. Boland had another serious chat with her class. She asked them, realistically if they wanted to aim for top 10 in the country, a feat classes in the past had strived for. \u201cOthers may be satisfied from simply making it to Nationals. I knew you wouldn\u2019t be satisfied until you made it to the top 10,\u201d Before she could finish the sentence, the class clearly already had their mind made up.<\/p>\n
Watch out world, Trumbull\u2019s We the People Team is shooting for top 10.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Jack Zhang ’14 EE Co-Editor in Chief Disappointed couldn\u2019t describe the depth of emotion emanating from Trumbull High students during their bus ride home from Hartford on\u00a0December 18th. Downright devastated would be…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2045,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thseagleseye.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thseagleseye.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thseagleseye.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thseagleseye.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thseagleseye.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2021"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/thseagleseye.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2021\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2046,"href":"http:\/\/thseagleseye.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2021\/revisions\/2046"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thseagleseye.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thseagleseye.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thseagleseye.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thseagleseye.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}