Government Students Select ‘Person of the Year’

Government+Students+Select+Person+of+the+Year

Government students completed Time magazine projects for their Person of the Year before voting on their favorite cover

Each year in the senior government classes, teachers assign their students the Time magazine project with the hopes of keeping their students updated on current events around the world. For the project, students are instructed to choose a person or entity they feel deserves the “Person of the Year” award and collect supporting articles that to elaborate on their choice. Last year, however, the history department decided to turn this annual project into a friendly competition among the senior class.

Choosing a person, group, idea, or object that has impacted the world, for better or worse, is the first task government students must tackle before beginning their project.

“Although it was very time-consuming, the project was a lot of fun,” said senior Lauren Lassiter. “As soon as the project was introduced, I knew I was going to base mine around Beyoncé because she is a strong feminist who has a very large positive impact on our society.”

After choosing their topic, students search for a minimum of six artifacts, including videos and articles, and complete a personal write-up to support their choice for Person of the Year.

“Since the entire senior class is participating, we thought it would be fun to recognize those who did a really nice job on the project and give everyone a chance to see what their classmates created,” said government teacher Michael Daniel.

Government students did a gallery walk on February 15 and 16 to check out their peer’s work before ultimately voting on a winner.  While the project itself was graded based on the entirety of the magazine creation, the students will merely be voting for the best magazine cover.

“Kids are not going to be able to vote for themselves or for their classmates,” said government teacher Kathryn Bales. “This way, we get the students to actually walk around and have a look at all of the projects that were put together.”

Jaide McMahn’s project on Elon Musk won first place, Trinity Green won second place, and Hannah Swarm placed third.

“I featured different people who stepped up during times of crisis within the past year,” said Swarm. “Not first responders specifically, but regular people who showed a lot of bravery and heroism during events such as the Las Vegas shooting and the hurricanes.” Swarm said she chose this topic because it was abstract. “There were so many disasters and so many different people involved and they were all a very important part of our year,” said Swarm. “I learned that if you look hard enough, there are a lot of untold stories out there; it’s not just about what is shown on the news.”