From Jan.uary 27 to Jan.uary 30, a group of Germantown Academy students traveled to Washington D.C. to participate in the Civic Leadership program. The GA students joined four hundred other students from across the country in this conference hosted by Close Up Washington D.C.
This trip held vital significance to GA as the students who attended discussed prominent problems with theour school and their solutions, with GA discussing two topics: mental health and education. This allowed a better perspective on the state of GA.
“It was so that we could have better perspectives as young adults on what problems were in our community from our perspective,.” Nick Lieu ‘28 said.
Discussions on problems with GA and also the world are often held by adults, so this program allows young adults to voice their opinions and also understand more about problems and solutions provided by others.
All of the students gained knowledge on GA and the problem solving process, specific to their topics.
“I learned that there are a lot of people with the same interests and motivation as me, especially for the education department”, Lauren Kim ‘27 said.
Many different events were held, including debate workshops where the students got to learn about tactics used to help civilized debate happen, where everybody’s points could be heard in a just manner.
“There were good debate workshops. One of the ones I remember specifically was a discussion with pilots and copilots.” Nick Lieu ‘28 said
The premise of this workshop was to teach a method of debate. instead of everyone talking, a group of “pilots” would talk to each other, and each of them would have two “copilots” who would suggest ideas to the pilots. This creates a more civilized and controlled debate, rather than having an unruly jumble of arguments.
Another activity the students got to take part in was observing a panel at the Washington D.C. Jewish Community Center. In this, they could ask questions about the topics being discussed at the conference, and listen to the statements of speakers. Through this, the students got to learn valuable information and lessons.
“Something that just stood out for me, from that interview panel, was that one of them said that you don’t have to be an adult in order to start making changes. You can just start doing it now,” said Nick Lieu ‘28 said.from?
The GA students returned to the conference with reflections and ideas formulated over the trip. They came up with additions to GA that would make the school more advanced and a better place regarding their topics, and presented them to the GA faculty in a panel.
“When I shared my ideas with the teachers, I got a lot of positive feedback from it, and I knew that it was nice to be supported after putting in a lot of work”, Lauren Kim ‘27 said
One such idea involved creating time in GA to discuss current political events in order to reduce polarization. Part of their plan was to add more current events to the curriculum of history classes at GA and create discussion times about these topics.
Programs like these are opportunities for GA’s community to grow and learn from a diverse group of people. Through this program, students have learned useful skills in leadership and have configured ideas to help GA grow.