Perry High School senior Emilie Bates is a district champion in the Know Your Constitution program, the Iowa State Bar Association (ISBA) announced Monday.
For more than 35 years, the Young Lawyers Division of the ISBA has hosted the Know Your Constitution program, in which high school students interpret provisions of the U.S. Constitution and apply them to real-life scenarios.
In order to win, Bates took a 50-question multiple-choice quiz and submitted a short essay that responded to a prompt involving a current Constitutional controversy.
She will now be feted Jan. 24 along with other district winners at a luncheon in Des Moines, an event that will also include a seminar on Constitutional law and speeches from an Iowa Supreme Court Justice and other Constitution experts, academics, judges and prominent politicians, the ISBA said.
At the conclusion of the luncheon, five students will be awarded $1,000 college scholarships, and one student will receive a prize for the best essay.
Bates, the daughter of Beth Bates and Don Lee of Perry, is a member of the National Honor Society and is enrolled in the Teacher Academy program at the DMACC Perry VanKirk Career Academy. She intends to pursue studies in early childhood education at Central College in Pella, where longtime PHS Principal Dan Marburger was an alumnus. Emilie also works on weekends as a home health aide for Iowa Home Care, caring for the elderly and disabled.
“Emilie deserves to be recognized for all she has accomplished and continues to do so,” said her mother, Beth Bates.
