Baldwin Students Prep for Harvard Model Congress

Julia Dewey, a senior at the , is preparing to channel her inner John Bryson.

In the 2012 Harvard Model Congress, to be held Feb. 23 to 26 in Boston, Dewey is playing the role of the secretary of commerce in the presidential Cabinet. She’s been on the lookout for relevant articles—on such topics as GOP candidates discussing which federal departments they’d eliminate and President Barack Obama recently proposing to consolidate several agencies.

Dewey, who has been accepted to Brown and intends to study biology, said her interests mostly lie in science.

“At the moment, I’m not pushing for (a political career), but I don’t think it’s out of the question,” said Dewey, Baldwin’s 2012 class president.

She said she became involved in Model Congress at Baldwin after seeing other friends enjoy it. Freshmen and sophomores in the club tend to focus on how Congress works, while it’s mostly juniors and seniors who delve into the more specific roles and functions, she said.

Though the 17-year-old said she hasn’t decided whether she’s a Democrat or a Republican, she said she tends to lean left. But despite what their personal views are, students aim to stay true to the values of the characters they’re playing, Dewey said, which for her have included conservative Republicans.

“I see other people who are very conservative and develop my own views instead of going off of my parents’ views or my friends’ views,” Dewey said, adding her mother also tends to lean left and her father is a Republican. “On a small scale, it’s been fun to debate my parents.”

Of the 32 Baldwin students who are attending this year’s conference, eight of them have special roles, which include an Election 2012 panel. Senior Elena Saltzman will be Obama, senior Randi Brown will be the Republican speechwriter and junior Abby Grosskopf will play the Republican policy advisor. 

Junior Sydney Sisler will serve on the Constitutional Convention special program committee, senior Michaela Schuchman will be a lobbyist for the American Civil Liberties Union, senior Jessica Gubanich will be a lobbyist for Amnesty International and junior Savannah Stanton-Ameisen will be a lobbyist for the Cato Institute. 

Dewey said at the conference, committee members can call on lobbyists for testimony, or call Obama. (“We’ll probably be doing that a lot more this year since we know 'him,'” she said of classmate Saltzman.)

Jeff Lieberman, Baldwin’s Model Congress advisor and social studies teacher, said Baldwin students started attending the conference at Harvard 10 years ago and fell in love with it.

“It really facilitates working together and trying to accomplish something,” Lieberman said. “We’re the only school around here that goes. It’s an amazing thing, sort of unique to our school on the Main Line.”

The four-day conference, which is run by Harvard students, simulates real-life situations among the 10 to 15 committees with 1,500 high school students.

“I wish everyone who watches the local news every night and gets depressed could be transported to this conference and see the good that does exist,” Lieberman said.