Students take top two spots at region.
North Lamar High School students earned the top two spots from the Region 8 UIL Student Congress competition at the Region 8 Service Center in Pittsburg on November 5.
Advancing to the state competition in January from North Lamar are Mackenzie Walker, first place, and Isabella LoCicero, second place and Top Presiding Officer. The final round will be held at the State Capitol in Austin and is the sixth year for NLHS students to advance to state. Others from North Lamar who placed are Hunter Steelman, fifth place, Jordan White, sixth place, and Cydney Dean, seventh place.
Congress is an individual contest in a large group setting. It models the legislative process of democracy, specifically, the United States Congress. Within this mock legislative assembly competition, contestants draft legislation (proposed laws and position statements) submitted to the tournament, and they research the docket of bills and resolutions dealing with real-world social and political policies prior to the contest to prepare their speeches. At the tournament, students deliver formal discourse on the merits and disadvantages of each piece of legislation, and vote to pass or defeat the measures they have examined. Parliamentary procedure forms structure for the discourse, and students extemporaneously respond to others’ arguments over the course of a session.
Judges evaluate contestants for their research and analysis of issues, argumentation, skill in asking and answering questions, use of parliamentary procedure and clarity and fluency of speaking. Each Congress session is approximately 3 hours. A student Presiding Officer runs the session.
