Kadena students travel to Singapore for hands-on education

  • Published
  • By Corinne Lennard
  • Kadena High School sophomore
KADENA AIR BASE, Japan --  For an opportunity to learn about congress, ten Kadena High School students joined 250 students from all over Asia when they traveled to Singapore to participate in Harvard Model Congress Asia.

The Congress was run by current Harvard University students who worked together to plan and run all activities.  They worked to make the event fun but also educational.

HMC provided 13 different aspects of Congress, from the House to the G15 to the Press Corps to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.  Schools came from as close as Malaysia, and as far away as Jordan, India, the Philippines and Indonesia.  Issues that were discussed included immigration, Foreign Aid, Drug Trafficking and Obamacare, along with many other topics.

The Kadena group consisted of sophomores Ben Bloom, Alysa Burchill and Corinne Lennard; juniors Kelly Kaneshiro, Shane Kemeny, Scott Vogel and Desirae Seals; and seniors Nicole Lara, Rodrigo Main and Landis Mathis.

Ben Bloom played Representative Jim Gerlach, a Republican from Pennsylvania. Bloom said his favorite part was meeting and interacting with the international students.  "I would definitely go back!  I loved the debating and voting on the various political issues.  I learned a lot and had so much fun," he added.

Kelly Kaneshiro worked in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and said that her favorite part was meeting a lot of new people and that she especially enjoyed "sightseeing, passing bills and debating topics."  She also added that the conference made her more interested in world topics and debating.

Alysa Burchill played the part of Elton Gallegly, a Republican representative of California. "I would definitely go back.  I learned a lot about congress by participating in the mock version," Burchill said. "I got to help create and pass two bills.  Before I went to HMC I didn't have a huge interest in current events and politics, but now I definitely do."

Rodrigo Main said, "My favorite part was getting an outlook on politics and how the international students think of American Politics." Main played Barney Frank, a Democrat from Massachusetts in the House of Representatives. As a senior, Main won't have the opportunity to go back next year and said, "If I could, I would definitely go back. I could do what I did there for a long time because it was probably the most fun I've ever had embracing politics."

Giving students the opportunity to participate in congress provided a more hands-on experience than just listening in a classroom.  Shane Kemeny, who is also the clubs president and worked as a Heritage Foundation Lobbyist at the conference said, "HMC was an experience of a lifetime.  I made lifelong friends from all over Asia and maybe, if we're lucky, we will all be able to work together to solve real issues in the future."