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Contact: Jon A. Sullivan
Manager, Media Services & Public Affairs
jsullivan@nysba.org
518/487-5532
June 5, 2007
STATE BAR ASSOCIATION SPONSORS PROGRAM TO EDUCATE
MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS ON CIVIC PARTICIPATION
Future Leaders Present Comprehensive Public Policy
Projects
The New York State Bar Association’s Law, Youth &
Citizenship Program will sponsor the We the People: Project Citizen
Program Showcase, a judged exhibit of the best public policy projects
completed by middle school students and youth organizations in New York
State, on Friday, June 8, at the Empire Plaza North Concourse (across
from Key Bank) from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The program promotes competent and
responsible participation in local and state government.
“These teams may be comprised of young people but their
ideas are very mature. Every year their projects impress the public,
dazzle elected officials and astound even the most seasoned lawyers, who
serve as the judges,” New York State Bar Association Director of
the Law, Youth & Citizenship Program, Eileen Devine Gerrish, said.
“The hours of work, the creativity and civic pride, always on
display at the Project Citizen Showcase, is a comforting illustration
that the future of New York State is in very safe hands.”
The Project Citizen program is administered through a national
network of state and congressional district coordinators and is funded
by the U.S. Department of Education. Teams taking part in the Showcase
will work cooperatively to identify and research a public policy problem
in their community, evaluate solutions, and create a political action
plan designed to enlist authorities to adopt their proposals. Thirty
local attorneys, all members of the New York State Bar Association, have
volunteered to evaluate the projects, with the winning portfolio going
to the National Project Citizen Showcase as part of the National
Conference of State Legislatures to be held in Boston later this
summer.
The Project Citizen Program was introduced in 1995 and has been
part of the curriculum for more than 1.4 million students nationwide.
The program has now been expanded to include the high school and
post-secondary level. Additional information about the Project Citizen
Program is available on the internet at www.lycny.org.
The 72,000-member New York State Bar Association, founded in 1876, is
the official statewide organization of lawyers in New York and the
largest voluntary state bar association in the nation. NYSBA programs
and activities have continuously served the public and improved the
justice system for more than 130 years.
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List of participants
• Forest Elementary- PS71, Ridgewood, NY (Queens), 2
projects
• PS 122, Astoria (Queens) 5th and 8th grades, 6
projects
• Townsend Harris High School, Flushing, NY (Queens), 2
projects
• PS 98, Bay Academy for the Arts and Sciences, Brooklyn,
NY, 2 projects
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