LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (KATV) — A student from Mabelvale will head to Philadelphia this summer to represent Arkansas at the Youth Continental Congress, a program focused on civics, history and civic engagement. It is the first time Arkansas has participated, according to her teacher.
Ashley Luna Hernandez earned the opportunity after submitting an essay and paper explaining why the program mattered to her and how studying history and civics connects to her future goals and career plans.
“My main theme was mainly about immigration,” Hernandez said. She said she wrote about fears she believes some teens experience. “I feel like not just me, but other kids, other teens of other races, have had the the thing of being scared to have their parents taken away, even with immigration or without immigration status. So, that’s mainly what I wrote my essay about.”
Her teacher, Randall Crawford, said the program offers students a deeper connection to the nation’s founding principles and current issues.
“It’s one of those things that I, you know, wanted to make sure that I gave our students an opportunity to,” Crawford said. He added that the program “really helps connect them to our founding principles and stuff that’s going on today, civic engagement, stuff that the youth really need to learn.”
Between now and the trip, Hernandez and other participants will work through learning modules that include studying founding figures and key events leading up to the American Revolution. Crawford said they recently completed a module on the Boston Massacre and will continue through “the various stages of the American Revolution, until July, when we go to Philadelphia.”
As part of the program, students are expected to complete a project that mirrors the structure of the Declaration of Independence, but focused on modern concerns.
“The project, I believe at the end of it, we are they’re going to do a declaration of a, youth declaration of like the Declaration of Independence, but for this generation of the issues and problems they think that that needs to be addressed,” Crawford said.
Crawford said the coursework includes primary source documents, secondary sources and extensive reading. He also said Hernandez is part of a concurrent enrollment program and is taking college classes through UCA at Little Rock Southwest.
Hernandez said she is looking forward to meeting new people and learning more in-depth about civics and history.
“Mainly, just getting to know more people, just trying to be a little bit more outgoing, and also getting to learn a bit a little bit more, not just about, like I said, like, what we know now, but more of going into depth about civics history and how, like the rights, the Bill of Rights, stuff like that,” she said.