Although students at Franklin Community High School didn’t ship up to Boston or park their cars in Harvard Yard, students in the school’s Harvard Model Congress club were able to participate in a myriad of scenarios involving trials, legislature and historic presidential cabinets.
Harvard Model Congress, run entirely by Harvard University students, is the largest congressional simulation conference in the world, according to the conference’s website, and took place virtually this year.
During a typical year, students from across the country and around the world study up on the roles they play, such as being a cabinet member for John F. Kennedy, and played those roles at Harvard’s campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts during a conference that involves a week-long trip to the Boston area.
This year, however, the coronavirus pandemic pushed the conference online. Franklin schools had students join the event via video conferencing from the high school, and provided meals from local establishments, such as Greek’s Pizzeria and Main and Madison Market Café. The set up at the high school also included Boston-themed items, such as Boston beans and subway tokens with pictures of the Boston subway map, said Angela Koontz, who serves as the school’s Harvard Model Congress co-sponsor, along with Chaz Hill.
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One of the challenges for students is playing the role of someone they don’t necessarily agree with, Koontz said.
“Some are liberal, some conservative,” Koontz said. “The best example of being able to make your case and argument, someone very liberal has to portray someone conservative. One girl who is liberal is portraying (U.S. Representative) Mo Brooks, someone who doesn’t believe in climate change.”
Franklin Community High School is the only high school in the state to participate in Harvard Model Congress, she said.
Andrew Page, co-president of the school’s Harvard Model Congress club, portrayed William Wertz, a member of John F. Kennedy’s cabinet. Even though the conference wasn’t in person, it was still a valuable experience, Page said.
“He was tasked with fixing issues at the time; the Cuban Missile Crisis, the space race and the civil rights movement. I learned what he did while in office and his early life so I could get a background that allowed me to better portray him,” Page said of Wertz.
“Earlier on in the year, I was wondering if we’d be able to have (the conference) in any form at all. It’s nice to be able to do it with people around the country. I would’ve loved to be in Boston, but even though we’re here, the Harvard team did a great job.”
Carly Woodward, co-president, played the role of a medical examiner during a hypothetical murder trial. Although going to Boston was a great experience, staying in Indiana helped her stay focused on preparing for the conference, she said.
“For junior year, I think in the back of my head my main focus was I was excited to go to Boston, see the Harvard campus and explore downtown Boston. My court cases were second priority,” Woodward said. “This year, all we really had was our court cases, and we did as much as we possibly could. We had six or seven two-hour practices and also worked outside of that.”
As is the case when the conference is in person, the event helped students connect with their peers across the country, said Belma Duheric, a member of the executive council who played the roles of a witness and an attorney.
“I always just try and get into the character by reading the facts,” Duheric said. “We collaborated. Aside from us in the group, you do work with many different schools across the country. There’s a lot of schools from the east coast that come in. We competed against a group from Georgia, and there was definitely collaboration towards the end. Whatever school you were introduced to from another state, they were your competitors, and we conversed and talked about where we’re from.”
