January 13, 2003
Contact: Lindsay Hansen (602)957-9779
Print Press Release

Who: Eight of Arizona’s top high school civics and government classrooms.

What: The Arizona Foundation for Legal Services & Education’s 16th annual “We the People…the Citizen and the Constitution” state competition.

When: The state competition took place on Friday, January 10th at Arizona State University West.

Winners: 1st place – Dobson High School, Abby Dupke, Teacher
2nd place – Hamilton High School, Michael Spears, Teacher
3rd place – Mountain Ridge High School (Gold Team*), Tammy Waller, Teacher

Unit Winners:
Unit 1 - Mountain Ridge High School (Gold Team*), Glendale, Tammy Waller, Teacher
Unit 2 - Mountain Ridge High School (Burgandy Team*), Glendale, Tammy Waller, Teacher
Unit 3 - Prescott High School, Prescott, Dorrean Walker, Teacher
Unit 4 - Globe High School, Globe, David Franquero, Teacher
Unit 5 - Willcox High School, Willcox, Troy Hamilton, Teacher
Unit 6 - Rio Rico High School, Rio Rico, Kent Barter, Teacher

* Mountain Ridge competed with two classrooms

Helpful Websites:

History of “We the People”:
We the People is sponsored by the Arizona Foundation for Legal Services & Education and supported with funding by the Arizona Supreme Court and the Center for Civic Education. Over the last sixteen years, the Foundation has trained several hundred Arizona teachers and distributed thousands of free sets of We the People textbooks to Arizona classrooms. As a result, more than 22,500 students have learned about the US Constitution and Bill of Rights through this innovative, active-learning curriculum.

Fact Sheet
Eight teams participated:

Regional tournaments were held in Arizona’s six Congressional Districts. Sixteen teams competed in the regional tournaments. Next year there will be two additional regional tournaments to reflect Arizona’s new Congressional Districts.

Each team consists of a regularly rostered class of Juniors or Seniors who are studying Civics and Government or History.

The winner of the State tournament advances to the national tournament in Washington DC which will be held in April 2003. Arizona has won several National We the People awards:

The We the People curriculum meets all the State Civics and Government standards and many of the State Language Arts standards. 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 US Constitution and Bill of Rights.

About the Arizona Foundation for Legal Services & Education

The Arizona Foundation for Legal Services & Education was created over twenty years ago to support legal aid for the indigent throughout the state and to support democracy education in primary and secondary schools. In 2002, the Foundation will disburse over $2 million in funding to support 25 legal aid agencies throughout the state. The Foundation also funds comprehensive K-12 education programs, teaches youth about conflict resolution, peace making, public policy making, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. In 2002, the Foundation will reach 40,000 Arizona school children with this curriculum.

For more information about “We The People…The Citizen & The Constitution”, please contact Susan Nusall, state program coordinator at 602-340-7361 or email at [email protected].