By Peter Elacqua
Staff Writer
MARLBORO – An exceptional victory in a state competition will send a group of Marlboro High School students to a national event in Washington, D.C., in April.
In January, Marlboro’s We the People team won its first We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution state competition. The victory was notable because it ended the domination of the contest by two other schools.
In the 29 years the event has been held, East Brunswick High School has won 27 times and West Windsor-Plainsboro High School has won twice. Marlboro had been among the finalists in the past, but until this year the school had never claimed first place.
The Marlboro team is coached by Craig Uplinger, who teaches government and social studies.
The national competition will be held from April 21-25. A total of 36 Marlboro students will compete against their peers from across the country. While the students are in Washington, D.C., they will tour the nation’s capital.
Craig Uplinger will escort the students to Washington, D.C., with his wife, Jenny Uplinger, and Marlboro teachers Justin Hock and Christine Shaw.
Uplinger said We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution is a constitutional law course that has been taught at Marlboro since 2007.
The curriculum consists of six units, including “Historical and Philosophical Foundations” and “Challenges Facing the American Constitutional Democracy in the Twenty–First Century.”
After reviewing the entire curriculum in four to six weeks, the students form six permanent unit teams and work to build expertise in their unit. The unit teams demonstrate their expertise in mock legislative hearings.
At the end of the first semester, the unit teams come together to represent Marlboro as one team in the New Jersey State Simulated Legislative Hearing competition.
“I am very proud of the students,” Uplinger said. “They are such a diverse group of students, yet they came together beautifully in the month before the state competition. I have never had a group of students improve so much in a month’s time. They met and exceeded every challenge placed before them.”
“When East Brunswick was called for second place, signifying that we had won, I was in an utter state of shock,” sophomore Reagan Moreno said. “Everyone stood up and erupted in cheers, so I did the same without really thinking about why.
“After a few minutes it registered to me that we came in first place and I was one of several people who cried. I have never experienced such a sensation of pride and joy and I am convinced I will not feel that way again for the rest of my high school career. I finally understand what people mean when they say hard work will eventually pay off,” Reagan said.
The students and chaperones are raising money for the trip. The cost per student is $1,219 and the cost per chaperone is $1,349. In addition to organizing fundraisers in school and in the community, the students have created a GoFundMe page at https://www.gofundme.com/we-the-people-nationals
The students competing for Marlboro are Kwaku Amponsah, Neha Annigeri, Samantha Bartelloni, Ben Berman, Paige Bettoff, Krishna Bhutada, Ilana Blumen, Brandon Buscarnera, Julia Caracappa.
Also, Ryan Cassidy, Alexis Chapman, Nicole Chen, Zackary Coleman, Nadine Djailani, Gabby Farina, Riaz Gillani, Justin Goldstein, Julien Hill, Soondus Iqbal, Seth Katz.
And, Ross Kaufman, Amrita Khaira, Natallie Lau, Shaun Lederman, Sarah Lee, Daniel McGrath, Reagan Moreno, Michael Orlando.
Also, Anthony Petrosino, Harnish Sant, Aniketh Sarkar, Jason Shanley, Danielle Spano, Jacob Wasserman, Molly Weiss and Alexander Whitman.
