April 1, 2009 – “Amazing” and “exciting” are words that Mark Young repeatedly uses to describe his volunteer work with students at Wauwatosa West High School.
Mark Young, left, with Chief Justice Abrahamson.
Young will be given an award for his efforts to advance law-related education by the State Bar at the Volunteer Lawyers Recognition Celebration on May 6 during the
Annual Convention in Milwaukee. But Young makes it clear that he has already been honored many times over by the achievements of the students through the
We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution program.
We the People is a competition for high school students sponsored by the Center for Civic Education to test their knowledge of the Constitution, American history, and the law. The competition is in a congressional hearing-style question-and-answer format where the students are grilled by a panel of professors, lawyers, state judges, and state legislators. The subject of this year’s competition is the Declaration of Independence and its relationship to Abraham Lincoln, the Fourth and Sixth Amendments, and the Enlightenment philosophies of John Locke and Thomas Hobbes.
“It is amazing to watch the students’ minds open to these tough questions,” he said. “They are seeing things at a deeper level than other students and even most Americans.”
Since 2008, Young has assisted Wauwatosa West social studies teacher Chad Mateske with preparing the students for competition when his son Reggie became involved with the program.
Young meets with the students for the first hour of the school day and confers with them on weekends. Young arranges for the students to visit with experts such as University of Wisconsin American history professor John Kaminski, whose work on the Constitution ratification debates was cited by the U.S. Supreme Court in District of Columbia v. Heller. Young also assists the students with research and reviews their opening statements. Students practice their answers to demanding questioning from Young. “We ask them the questions we expect will be asked at the competition and make them defend their positions,” he said.
Mateske estimates that through his extensive research and consultations, Young has given about 270 hours over the past year and a half. When the team traveled to D.C. last year, Mateske recalled that Young and his wife stayed at a nearby hotel so that he could hold study sessions with the students in preparation for the next day.
“The kids absolutely love him and he has left an impression on those young people that they will remember for the rest of their lives,” Mateske said. “When he is in the building, the faces of the kids from last year’s team light up as they get excited to catch up with him from their experience last year.”
“Mark’s commitment to Wauwatosa West and its programs is remarkable,” said State Bar Law-related Education Committee chair Lindsay Draper, an attorney who coaches the Wauwatosa West mock trial team. Draper noted that although the State Bar is recognizing Young’s work with the We the People competition, he has been just as important of a contributor to the school’s mock trial program.
A rewarding partnership
In 2008, the Wauwatosa West team won the We the People state competition and went on to finish in the top half of the field during the national contest in Washington, D.C. This year, the team has again won at the state level and aims to improve its showing in D.C. April 25-27.
Regardless of the ultimate outcome, Young said that the students have already been greatly enriched.
“Last year, when one of the girls heard they won and they would be going to D.C., she said, ‘I’ve only ever been to Minnesota,’” Young said. “For some, the trip was their first plane ride.”
Young said that it is exciting to see last year’s juniors preparing to graduate and go to college now. Young, the first of his family to go to college, said that he has a particular affection for those students who will be first-generation college students. He and his wife had taken a couple of these students for a tour of a college campus in anticipation of the transition to come this fall.
But once these students adjust to college, Young is confident the skills they have learned from the We The People program will ensure their success. Students have to learn to think on their feet through the intense questioning of the panelists, he said. The opening statements that are expected to encompass volumes of material in just a few short minutes make the students concise and analytical writers, he added.
“It is a great exercise whether they go into the law or not,” Young said. “They will never look for easy answers to complicated questions again.”
Interest among Wauwatosa West students in the program is strong and not all of those who apply are accepted. There were 28 students in the project the first year Young worked and 18 students this year. Next year, Young said that there are 58 students looking to get involved.
By Alex De Grand, Legal Writer, State Bar of Wisconsin
