Tempe's Corona del Sol High School Advances to We the People National Finals in Washington

TEMPE - February 1, 2010 - Competing against Arizona's top nine regional teams, Tempe's Corona del Sol High School captured first-place in the annual state We the People academic competition.

Corona del Sol's students will represent Arizona in Washington, DC at the We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution National Finals in April. More than 1200 high school students from all 50 states and the District of Columbia will participate in the competition testing students' knowledge of the U.S. Constitution.

"As coach I was pleased with how the team came together and supported each other ...," said Tim Smith, who led his class to the championship. "Of course a goal of the class is to win State, but more importantly, as an educator it is to increase my students understanding and appreciation of our Constitutional Democracy."

Students representing Corona del Sol High School included: Achyut Patil, Ajay Raikhelkar, Alex Austin, Brittany Duong, Cecilia Yocham, Connor Rawls, David Choi, Jentry Lanza ,Jessica Lin, Joanna Fritsche, Juliana Park, Kevin Thomas, Kibaek Ryu, Louis Spanias, Marlene Garcia-Neuer , Michael Okada, Nafisah Ahmad, Nikhita Pakki, Richa Date, Rizwan Ahmad, Robert Wiley, Roopa Krishnaswamy, Sagar Patwardhan, Samantha Pfotenhauer, Sean Magruder, Selena Kuo, Sherry Zhao, Tiffany Dayton, Tina Cai and Xandy Peterson.

Chandler's Hamilton High School finished second in the state competition, followed by Mesa Dobson High School and Lake Havasu High School.

Arizona Foundation for Legal Services and Education Program Specialist Hayley Ivins remarked, "Each year we are incredibly impressed by the poise and knowledge of all the We the People students that participate in the program. ..."

In addition to the nine high schools participating in the competition, there were also five Showcase teams, including two teams from Phoenix's Desert Sands Middle School, a team from La Cima Middle School Tucson and teams from Heber's Mogollon Middle School and Litchfield Park's Trinity Lutheran School.

The national, state and local competitions are important culminating activities of We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution, the most extensive civic education program of its kind in the country. The We the People: The Citizen & the Constitution textbook, developed by the Center for Civic Education, is distributed in Arizona at no cost to Arizona teachers attending professional development trainings conducted by the Arizona Foundation for Legal Services & Education.

About Arizona's "We the People" Program
Over the last 20 years, the Arizona Foundation for Legal Services & Education has trained several hundred Arizona teachers and distributed thousands of free sets of We the People textbooks to Arizona classrooms. As a result, thousands of Arizona students have learned about the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights through this innovative, active-learning curriculum.

The Program encourages active learning in and out of the classroom about contemporary constitutional issues, the history of democratic philosophy and the history surrounding the creation of the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights. Each We the People team competing is a regularly-rostered class of juniors or seniors studying civics and government or history.

Ten out of the past 12 years, Arizona teams have placed within the top ten. In 2002, Dobson High School placed first in the "We the People" National Competition.

About the Arizona Foundation for Legal Services and Education
The Foundation provides technical and financial assistance to legal aid organizations, schools and community groups working toward "access to justice for all Arizonans" through law-related education and support of organizations offering legal services to those who could otherwise not gain access to justice.