After two days of intense debate, GOA came home with a tremendous ten awards from the New Jersey Model Congress (NJMC) convention held at Rider University.
The winners of the “Outstanding Delegate” award were sophomores Tara Langer, Remy Friedberg, Emily Himber, Salomon Messulan and freshman Hanna Laufer, all recognized for their academic diligence and professionalism.
Sophomore Noa Rejwan was commended for having her bill passed through the Senate, a task that requires excellent debate skills and forethought.
Additional accolades went to juniors Morgan Sternthal and Mia Eskin as committee chairs, junior Violet Berman as President of the Senate and sophomore Noah Cytrynbaum as Democratic Party Whip.
Mr. Ober, the Model Congress faculty advisor, said, “This is definitely the largest number of awards we have received within recent years. For comparison, last year we had two Outstanding Delegates, one Whip and one Committee Chair. I am very proud of all of our delegates and our awards represent the dedication and passion everybody puts in.”
The award of “Outstanding Delegate” is awarded to the top-performing delegate in a committee who displays advanced levels of research, public speaking skills and well-crafted arguments. One delegate is awarded per committee, making each student’s win all the more impressive.
Freshman Hanna Laufer said, “The research and writing period were enjoyable but challenging. I annotated every bill from my committee, spoke frequently during debate and tried to ask thoughtful, in-depth questions about each one. Overall, I was very happy to hear that I won Outstanding Delegate, especially after all the hard work I had put in over the past two days.”
Legislation awards are given to sponsors of bills that have passed through two stages: the committee stage, where each committee meets individually, and the overall stage, where the entire House or Senate meets together to debate and vote on bills.
A committee, which has approximately 20-30 delegates, focuses on a specific topic. The Senate or House of Representatives has more than 100 delegates, covering a wider range of topics and narrowing legislation passed from the committees.
Rejwan’s bill, which was about increasing safety on public transportation, passed through the Senate Committee on Environment, Resources and Transportation (SENV) and the Senate itself.
It is difficult for legislation to pass through the Senate because of the larger number of delegates, who, using their wide range of perspectives, scrutinize bills more closely.
Rejwan said, “I was really happy and proud when my bill passed in the Senate. It made me feel more confident in myself and in my ideas. To prepare my bill, I chose a topic I really care about. Since I live in New York and commute to school every day, public transportation safety is something that feels very personal and important to me. That is why I wanted to bring attention to it and come up with a solution.”
Elisena DeNovellis, Rejwan’s chair in SENV, said, “The debates were heated, exciting and exceeded my expectations. The delegates were all highly informed with good, well-structured points.”
Committee chairs are student leaders who oversee committee sessions, guide discussion, assess the order of the day and maintain decorum.
Junior Mia Eskin, committee chair for House Committee on Science and AI said, “My committee’s debate was very fun and entertaining. My favorite part was controlling the debate and watching everybody bring up good points. I chose to become chair because I love debate and I believe I can help facilitate it.”
The President of the Senate is the overall chair who oversees the debate involving a larger group of delegates from multiple committees.
Junior Violet Berman, President of the Senate at NJMC, said, “I wanted to become president of the Senate because I enjoyed chairing a Senate committee last year and wanted to take on a larger role. My favorite part of the role was deciding which bills would create debate in the full Senate. I would definitely recommend this position to others.”
Both committee chairs and overall chairs are selected at Leadership Day in February.
A whip is a role appointed by party leaders. Whips visit various committees during the convention to manage bills under their assigned political party.
They are appointed during Party Day in December.
Sophomore Noah Cytrynbaum, a Democratic party whip at NJMC, said, “It’s similar to being a party leader but with slightly less ability; however, the experience of being a whip was great because we, the Democratic leadership, knew how powerful we really were. We expected to go far, and as we continued to meet our required targets, we saw what we didn’t expect, which is that perfection and total victory were in sight.”
With this impressive number of awards, GOA’s Model Congress team has proven itself to be a strong group that will continue to win in the years to come.
