This past weekend Madison High went to Boston for the annual Harvard Model Congress. Harvard Model Congress (HMC) claims to be the “premier government simulation for high school students.” The program summarizes the Congress in a single sentence, “Run entirely by Harvard students, our nonprofit organization is dedicated to teaching and inspiring the leaders of tomorrow.” This is exactly what the program does. Madison picked 38 students who showed interest this year. Returning seniors who took part in the program last year are guaranteed admittance. The interested juniors were to write an essay explaining why they wanted to take part in the trip; the best essays led the writers into the exciting program. Of the 38 Madison students, everyone had to pick their top 5 roles of choice in the Congress, in hopes of getting the role in the Congress that they wanted. In Boston, most kids were separated amongst the Houses and Senate, thrown into a room with kids from all over the country, where they learned about what Congress was like and even made new friends.
I myself took part in the trip and got the role of my choice, HMC Media, where I was the “PRESS.” My role was to walk around the Congress, going in and out of meetings that caught my interest, and writing articles on bills that passed or even bills that didn’t. My role was to write for what could be called the MDO of HMC. We wrote for the web page that was seen by the whole conference, keeping the viewers up to date on what was going on. Personally, HMC was the best weekend of my life and my fellow peers have said so as well. Harvard Model Congress is such an amazing program; it is truly an incredible experience.