By: Holden Sutter –
After months of practice and hours of grueling competition, Southeast’s We the People team were overjoyed to hear their name called up to receive first place at the state competition on Jan. 5. But for AP Government and Politics teacher David Nebel, this victory presented another challenge – raising the $1,674 per student needed in order to attend the national competition.
Nebel is the coach for Southeast’s We the People team and tries to spread the word about the team because he says many people are completely unaware that this competition even exists at Southeast.
“It is a form of authentic assessment that requires students to deal with abstract principles, make arguments, and defend those arguments,” Nebel said. “Students prepare a four minute prepared statement and then face questioning from a panel of expert judges for six minutes. During this time the students don’t have the benefit of notes to help them answer.”
The competition is in its 30th year and Southeast has been in it since the very beginning (they actually won the national competition in 1989.) Needless to say, there have been many types of fundraisers in the past.
“LSE students have had a variety of fundraisers like selling t-shirts, holding a spaghetti feed, and appealing to community agencies for support,” said Nebel.
This year Nebel decided to try to streamline the fundraiser and make it easier for anyone, not only in Lincoln, but also the country to donate towards this cause. This was done by creating a Fund-a-Need page that will gather donations that go straight into the cost for each student to go on this trip.
“Winning the state competition comes with the burden of paying for the trip to Washington, D.C. Participating in fundraisers, like this one, will greatly help out our cause.”
He aims for the fundraiser to raise enough for each student so that it would greatly reduce the cost.
The link for the fundraiser for anyone who’s interested to help out is right here. http://flps.fund-it.org/grants/view_grant.php?gid=4057