Recap: 2019 High School Program

Running Start’s 2019 High School Program had too many amazing moments to fully capture in a blog post, but here are a a few highlights from the elected Class Representative, Roxie Richner.

Throughout the week, we participated in a campaign simulation where we worked in groups to run a mock campaign. Each group had a candidate, campaign manager, communications director, political director, and new media director. Our campaign deliverables included a 60-second speech, a campaign video, a research report on our district, a fundraising strategy, and a social media campaign.

Left: us with Congresswoman Lauren Underwood; top right: me meeting Congresswoman Kyrsten Sinema at the Congressional Women’s Softball Game; middle right: Aliza, Molly, Naomi, and Sophie at McDermott Will & Emery; bottom right: us meeting Congresswomen at the Congressional Women’s Softball Game.

We also visited Capitol Hill to meet our representatives in Congress. During the Congressional Reception at McDermott Will & Emery, we were welcomed by Congressman Will Hurd, Congresswoman Jenniffer González-Colón, and Congresswoman Lauren Underwood. We not only engaged with members of Congress on the Hill, but on the field too after the Congressional Women’s Softball Game.

Top: executives from Forbes Tate Partners facilitating a session on campaign video production; bottom: award-winning actress Jayne Atkinson-Gill (from House of Cards and The Walking Dead) teaching about public speaking and presence.

Each day, we listened to experts in fundraising, campaigning, social media, public speaking, campaign video production, and networking. In addition to skill-building and leadership training, we also learned about finding common ground, self-defense, and resilience.

Top left: career coach Rebecca Thompson with Emily; bottom left: Molly and Aliza at the networking reception; right: Leena participating in the networking workshop.

We also attended a networking workshop and reception at The Wing in Georgetown, a network of work and community spaces for women, to help us practice our networking skills.

Running Start High School Program Class of 2019

I am so grateful for the opportunity to have met everyone, and I can’t wait to see what we’ll be up to in the future! Thank you to everyone for sharing a week of your summer with me and with Running Start.