United States Model Senate
For this project, we were all tasked with playing the role of one of our country's senators. I was assigned to play the role of senator Kirsten Gillibrand, the democratic senator from New York. We were then put into commitees to write bills on a certain isue, and I was assigned to Health, Education, and Labor commitee, and drafted legislation focused on college debt. We spent two days in our mock senate in comitees voting on bills and writing amendments. For our exhibition, we were voting to pass the finalized bills on the senate floor, one from the Health, Education, and Labor comitee, and one from the Immigration commitee.
Reflection
1. What was your role in Model Senate? Could you describe what you did? What did you like about your role? What was hard about your role?
I was assigned to play democratic senator Kirsten Gillibrand from New York, as a committee member for Health, Education, Pensions, and Labor. Since I was not in a specialized role, I drafted a bill aimed at eliminating college debt and wrote a speech in support of the bill my committee hoped to pass. The hardest part about my role was the speech. For some reason I just couldn’t get it just right, and when I gave it I spoke too fast.
2. What was your favorite moment or memory from model senate?
My favorite memory from model senate was my classmate’s Bernie Sanders speech. I thought that he perfectly imitated his speaking style and his hand gestures. I also really enjoyed some of the other speeches that students gave. Most of my classmates were able to get into character and were very impressive. Another favorite memory of mine from this project was getting to act as senator Gillibrand. I did a lot of research on her and her political views, and was pleased to discover that they aligned with mine. I was very impressed with her voting records, and everything she has done to lower student debt.
3. What do you think about the final bill that passed out of your committee?
I thought the bill that passed out of my committee was really good. I thought their to eliminate the production of half of the F-35 jets was really innovative and well researched. Unfortunately, it did not pass on the senate floor because most of the republican senators voted against it. It also had several other outlined solutions in it that I really liked. It proposed using the money from the reduction of F-35 jets going to state institutions, cutting interest rates on student loans, and allowing indebted students to pay off their loans with an income based repayment system.
4. How was your stress level during this project? Was that stress level warranted? Explain.
There were times when my stress level got pretty high. I had a hard time writing my bill, and I was off to a rough start on the project. There were also a lot of other things that I had to do for other classes and got a bit overwhelmed. I think my stress was warranted. If it wasn’t for all of my other classes, I would not have been as stressed. Overall, I thought the workload for model senate was fair.
I was assigned to play democratic senator Kirsten Gillibrand from New York, as a committee member for Health, Education, Pensions, and Labor. Since I was not in a specialized role, I drafted a bill aimed at eliminating college debt and wrote a speech in support of the bill my committee hoped to pass. The hardest part about my role was the speech. For some reason I just couldn’t get it just right, and when I gave it I spoke too fast.
2. What was your favorite moment or memory from model senate?
My favorite memory from model senate was my classmate’s Bernie Sanders speech. I thought that he perfectly imitated his speaking style and his hand gestures. I also really enjoyed some of the other speeches that students gave. Most of my classmates were able to get into character and were very impressive. Another favorite memory of mine from this project was getting to act as senator Gillibrand. I did a lot of research on her and her political views, and was pleased to discover that they aligned with mine. I was very impressed with her voting records, and everything she has done to lower student debt.
3. What do you think about the final bill that passed out of your committee?
I thought the bill that passed out of my committee was really good. I thought their to eliminate the production of half of the F-35 jets was really innovative and well researched. Unfortunately, it did not pass on the senate floor because most of the republican senators voted against it. It also had several other outlined solutions in it that I really liked. It proposed using the money from the reduction of F-35 jets going to state institutions, cutting interest rates on student loans, and allowing indebted students to pay off their loans with an income based repayment system.
4. How was your stress level during this project? Was that stress level warranted? Explain.
There were times when my stress level got pretty high. I had a hard time writing my bill, and I was off to a rough start on the project. There were also a lot of other things that I had to do for other classes and got a bit overwhelmed. I think my stress was warranted. If it wasn’t for all of my other classes, I would not have been as stressed. Overall, I thought the workload for model senate was fair.
Writing Goals
Goal #1: Not Being Repetitive
I will make sure that I am not repetitive. In the first draft of my college essay, I said "High school has been one of the most rewarding times of my life. Freshman year was one of the most important years of my life..." When I am trying to make a point in a writing piece I often find myself repeating specific words or phrases. This causes my essay to not flow as well as it could. To improve this in the future I need to pay attention to the wording I am using in my essays. I can also find areas where I can combine sentences to make one longer sentence. All of these strategies could greatly improve my writing abilities.
Goal #2: Evidence
In the future my writing needs to have more evidence. In my reflection essay for 'The Habits of Highly Cynical People' seminar, I did not provide evidence for the claim that I made in my second paragraph. I have the habit of spending too much time with the "T" part of my T-E-A paragraphs, and not enough time on the "E". My argument would have been much stronger with solid evidence to back it up. I will make sure to have solid evidence in my future writing for all of my classes.
Goal #3: Flow
I will make sure that my writing flows better in the future. During the majority of my college essay, I talked about the struggles I faced with my Tourette's, and towards the end I talk about coming out. While it was all part of the larger story I was trying to convey,I could have used a smooth transition while changing from those two parts of my story. If I use transition phrases and connecting sentences in the future, my writing will flow much better.
I will make sure that I am not repetitive. In the first draft of my college essay, I said "High school has been one of the most rewarding times of my life. Freshman year was one of the most important years of my life..." When I am trying to make a point in a writing piece I often find myself repeating specific words or phrases. This causes my essay to not flow as well as it could. To improve this in the future I need to pay attention to the wording I am using in my essays. I can also find areas where I can combine sentences to make one longer sentence. All of these strategies could greatly improve my writing abilities.
Goal #2: Evidence
In the future my writing needs to have more evidence. In my reflection essay for 'The Habits of Highly Cynical People' seminar, I did not provide evidence for the claim that I made in my second paragraph. I have the habit of spending too much time with the "T" part of my T-E-A paragraphs, and not enough time on the "E". My argument would have been much stronger with solid evidence to back it up. I will make sure to have solid evidence in my future writing for all of my classes.
Goal #3: Flow
I will make sure that my writing flows better in the future. During the majority of my college essay, I talked about the struggles I faced with my Tourette's, and towards the end I talk about coming out. While it was all part of the larger story I was trying to convey,I could have used a smooth transition while changing from those two parts of my story. If I use transition phrases and connecting sentences in the future, my writing will flow much better.