(Oklahoma City– May 18, 2007) Students at Union Eighth Grade Center were recently awarded third place for the fifth – eighth grade division in the “We the People: Project Citizen Program” sponsored by the Oklahoma Bar Association in Oklahoma City.

A portfolio of the students’ work, titled “Operation Wipeout (Graffiti)” was displayed at the Oklahoma Bar Center and judged by members of the state Legislature, legislative staff, educators and attorneys.

Participating students work in teams to identify a public policy problem in their community. They research the problem, evaluate alternative solutions, develop their own solution in the form of a public policy, and create a political action plan to enlist local or state authorities to adopt their proposed policy. The final step is the development of a portfolio to showcase their work.

“The Project Citizen program teaches students that they really have an impact on public policy,” said Jane McConnell, OBA Law-related Education Coordinator. “The OBA is proud to play a part in molding Oklahoma students into responsible and involved citizens through programs like Project Citizen.”

The Union team’s teacher is Linda Kincaid. Students participating in the project were Alexandra Asbury, Connor Baxter, Andrea Boss, Gabriela Cano, Rachel Coffman, Spencer Coles, Will Covalt, Megan Crum, Chandler Fann, Garrett Goodnight, Leah Gray, Tim Heinen, Dylan Hepner, Madison Houchin, Abiola Jaji, Taylor Jirik, Blake Jones, Scotty Karvia, Brett Killingsworth, Sean Kittell, Mason Krieser, Mohammed Moursy, Haley Pearson, Griffith Poindexter, Allison Porter, Andrew Rathe, Brandon Schmitz, Shelby Stillwell, Eric Stukey, Adam Thompson and Patrick Warrington.

Janet Cook’s fifth grade class at Laverne Elementary in Laverne took first place in the fifth – eighth grade division, and Pam Brown’s eighth grade class at All Saints Catholic School in Norman received second place.

An upcoming one-day Project Citizen summer teacher workshop is scheduled for Aug. 25 from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at the Oklahoma Bar Center in Oklahoma City. Applications for this workshop and other programs are available on the OBA Web site at www.okbar.org.

The Project Citizen program is administered with the assistance of a national network of state and congressional district coordinators in every state and is conducted with the assistance of the National Conference of State Legislatures. It is funded by the U.S. Department of Education by act of Congress.

Project Citizen is part of the OBA’s comprehensive statewide Law-related Education (LRE) Program which is committed to emphasizing the concepts of good citizenship. Other LRE programs include teacher in-service workshops, peer mediation programs, lesson plans, library resources and anti-drug programs. LRE services for educators are free. For more information, contact the OBA/LRE Department at (405) 416-7023.