The following student report was submitted by Ambassador League Agent Colleen H. during the 2007-2008 League.
My SSI Experience
SSI was. amazing. That's the only way I know how to describe it. It was an incredible week. I learned so much. I participated in the Mock Trial track, simply because I thought Senate was boring, and most of my friends were doing Mock Trial. That might not have been the best idea. but, as always - God works everything out for good.
That first day, I was very excited, because I found out that there would be an EXTREMELY smart person that was on the same case as me, and was also going to be on the defense side. At this time, I was thinking that this would mean that I really don't have to do any work, because he knows everything. I relaxed that night, and figured that I have a week full of fun and hanging out with friends ahead of me. Little did I know how much work this was really going to be.
I woke up the next morning and went to our first session of the day. When I walked into the room, I realized that the genius that was on my team last night was sitting at the wrong table. I quickly went up to him and kindly informed him that he needs to move to our team's table immediately. He just looked at me and said that he had been switched to a different case, and a different person would be joining my team. I was pretty sure I was going to have a heart attack right there. I knew we were going to lose now, and we might as well just quit before we start. Needless to say, that didn't happen the way I wanted it to.
My team was assigned to defend a man convicted of Child Abduction and Grand Theft. After looking through much evidence and analyzing the elements of the crimes, we came up with our arguments to save this man from a life in prison. The week was filled with many hours of planning, writing, and helping the other teammates. Much to my dismay, the Mock Trial students, who are the "advanced" students at SSI barely got any free time. I did not see how this was fair, since we were supposedly the ones there that knew the most. But, we did have a little bit every night.
However, on Friday, when we went to trial, I was extremely glad of all the time that we had spent on our case. If anything, I realized that maybe I should have used more of my free time to work on it. It was all worth it at the end, when the jury informed us that our client was proved "not guilty." We had won the case!
The week spent at SSI taught me a lot about how to be a lawyer, and the different things involved with going to trial in front of a judge and jury. But more importantly, it taught me so much about my worldview, and how I need to apply my faith to every part of life.
Mr. Anthony Weber came to speak to all the Mock Trial, Moot Court and Media students for a couple days. He was a very powerful speaker. I was inspired by his talks. The most important thing that He taught us was the way we search for truth. This world is filled with people who claim to know what is right. But there is only One that knows everything. That is Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. He is the one that created everything, and He is the one that owns it all. He knows what is right and He knows what is wrong. We need to filter everything we hear and look at it the way God would, to really see if it is right or wrong.
We all have an empty place in our heart. Everyone is searching for something to fill that hole. We can try to put a number of things in there to make us happy. Some will try to fill it with relationships, some with money, some with things and some sports. But that hole is there for only one person - Jesus. We will never be happy or feel fulfilled in life until we let God into our hearts. But it's much more than that - we don't just let him in and then everything is set for life. We have to constantly be drawing closer to him and putting more and more of Him into our hearts.
SSI was a great experience. I strongly encourage every person to go. Even if you're not into politics or not trying to have a political career, this week will teach you a lot about yourself, and more importantly, a lot about God.
