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Health & Fitness

HHS Model Congress Team Triumphs at UPenn

The Harrison High School Model Congress team (MoCo) attended the University of Pennsylvania Model Congress Conference where junior Marielle Sheck captured a gavel, the conference’s highest honor, and senior Ryan Nagle, sophomores Harry Barnwell and Andrew Carton, and freshman Raffi Piliero earned five honorable mention awards.  Over 800 students from schools across the nation attended the conference and former Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell was the keynote speaker for the opening ceremonies.

Twenty Harrison delegates took part in committee and full session simulations of the Senate and House of Representatives.  Former Harrison High School and current UPenn student Mikie Sakanaka was a chairperson in the Green Senate and former HHS MoCo founder and UPenn graduate Ariel Colangelo was a chairperson for full sessions of the Red Senate.

Each of Harrison’s delegates authored an original piece of legislation for the conference and fifteen delegates passed their bills in committee.  Sophomore Sam Schmaier’s bill, An Act to Regulate Housing for US Veterans, was passed in full session which is comprised of approximately 100 delegates.  Freshman Raffi Piliero was a participant in the National Economic Council, a special “crisis session” advisory board to the president of the conference.

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Individual awards were:

Marielle Sheck – Gavel (Blue Senate) – Ethics Committee
Ryan Nagle – Honorable Mention (Green House) – Full Session
Ryan Nagle – Honorable Mention (Green House) – Armed Services Committee
Harry Barnwell – Honorable Mention (Blue House) – Narcotics & Drug Trafficking Committee
Andrew Carton – Honorable Mention (Green House) – Education & The Workforce
Raffi Piliero – Honorable Mention (Red House) – Foreign Affairs

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“The UPenn conference was especially emotional for the HHS MoCo as senior MoCo Co-President Sam Colangelo will be attending The Wharton School and senior MoCo treasurer Daniel Maldonado will be attending UPenn in the fall,” said co-advisor Meghan Orban.  “They also plan on joining the UPenn Model Congress and look forward to chairing committees in the spring of 2015.”

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