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Mock Trials: A Life-Changing Experience

Shanae Sadler is a Citizen Schools alumna and a current Sophomore at Boston Community Leadership Academy. She gave the opening speech to an audience of hundreds at the Mock Trial event at the Moakley Courthouse on Tuesday December 6th.

This is her speech. 

Good Evening, students and parents, lawyers and judges, my name is Shanae Sadler. I am a Sophomore at Boston Community Leadership Academy and I’m here to tell you how one opportunity can change you and mold you into an image that you may have never imagined for yourself: a superhero. That is what the Citizen Schools program and my mock trial experience with Discovering Justice have done for me.

One half of the audience listening to Shanae's speech.

Apprentices, when I participated in Mock Trials, I remember sitting right where you are today. I was nervous, confused, and ecstatic all at the same time. But, here is some advice, take a minute and take a breath because we are all here to support you.  

Although I may seem confident and poised today, that was not always the case. I started Citizen Schools as a sixth grader making a fresh entrance at the Rogers Middle School in Hyde Park. I started off as a girl with a personality so quiet and deep that not a soul could see it. I never bent nor broke a rule in school. I was shy, quiet, and simple, but this program and this evening changed me.  

At first, some parts of Citizen Schools were more helpful than others. AIM time seemed to last for days, and doing homework was never a problem for me so I spent most of my time completing extra credit sheets….in silence.  However, I really began to break out of my shell trying new things and gaining new skills through apprenticeships, which are like elective classes you take for one semester. Through this experience, I tried many field jobs such as Architecture, Entrepreneurship, and Forensic Science, but my favorite apprenticeship of all was Mock Trials.

In my school, we actually had two Mock Trial pitches. At the time, I did not know much about the law field and was not sure which was better suited for my personality. But, Ropes and Grey’s option really caught my eye. The case was about a girl who posted pictures on Your Space of her friend smoking on school grounds…and the smoker was going to lose his scholarship. I thought, now I can take on this case and have justice be served!

We worked hard on the case for months. Every Wednesday I went downtown with my team to the firm. Once we arrived in the office, our Citizen Teachers, Bonnie and Ryan, would welcome us with big smiles and cookies, and remind us how many days were left until the big WOW!.  We each worked with a mentor on our specific topic. I learned about direct questions and the role of each lawyer, jury, and witness.   

Finally, 10 weeks had past, we had worked hard to prove our case, and I was ready. Ready to have that trial in front of a judge.  And when I got up in front of the judge I realized, “this takes some guts”.

Students present to a full courtroom, jury and federal judge.

I presented my case. The case I had worked so hard on.  And you know what? We lost.  Yep, the judge ruled against us.  But you know what else? When the judge ruled against us, I wasn’t sad or mad. Instead, I was proud of my hard work. But, since first I did not succeed in Mock Trials, I decided to try it again the next semester. This time I won and I felt even better gaining more leadership, courage, ambition, and maybe there was just a little bit of competitiveness.

Now that I am getting older, I can reflect back on how something so simple can make such a drastic change in someone’s life.  Mock Trials gave me confidence to think on my feet and provided motivation to help me make a good presentation. This experience made me realize that my words will make an impact, positively or negatively.  

That brings us to my future career.  Like everyone in this room, I dream of being successful.  Not in the high school sense of being the most popular.  But in the long term sense. Success to me means making change and I want to do that through journalism. This career allows me to write about the world around me while helping to raise awareness about things that I am passionate about.   

Now, one of the things I’ve learned about being a good journalist is that you have to ask the right questions, which, coincidentally, is one of the skills I developed in Mock Trials. I learned asking the right questions and actively listening are skills that all Journalists need, skills that all Lawyers need, and, I guess, they’re the same skills that anyone needs if they want to succeed.

Mock trials was a very rewarding and challenging experience. But since then, I have seen a lot of changes in my life. I began as a shy and scared girl and I am now a respectful, intelligent woman. I am now a leader and I have a voice.  Mock Trials gave me that voice.  I am now ready to wear that red cape.

Apprentices, tonight I have shared some of the ways those experiences have served me well. So I want to turn the tables and leave you with a question:

What are the good things you’ll be taking away from this experience,

…and how will you let this experience affect your life?

Thank you and good luck to all!

The Kids Teach the Teachers

Libby Monahan is a Second Year Teaching Fellow at the Orchard Gardens K-8 School in Roxbury, MA

The thing that attracted me to Citizen Schools the most was that not only are they working on closing the achievement gap, but they also recognize that the achievement gap is much more complex than just academics. They work towards closing an opportunity and access gap as well.

I work as a Citizen Teacher Lead for the Orchard Gardens School. So I have the opportunity to work with all of our students and teachers, and work with our apprenticeship programs, to provide that access and opportunity to our students.

My team of students last year challenged me to be a teacher, and they taught me how to be a teacher. One of my closest students to me, her name is Julienette. And I would credit her with being the student who taught me how to be not only a teacher, but just a providing and caring adult for a student.

Julienette was one of those girls who ran with the popular girls, and you know, she thought she was too cool for school, was consistently getting D’s and F’s in all of her classes, and couldn’t have cared less. No matter how much I pushed her, she was not budging.

So, one day, I was down in the main office doing door duty, and she was with her tutor, and she walked away from her tutor, came into the office, sat down in the chair next to me, didn’t say anything, and just started crying. And I had no idea why. I was right out of college, and never had a student sit there and cry to me before, so I was very out of my element.

And she just told me she had been being bullied, and that’s why she wasn’t caring about school. It was her best friend that had been bullying her, and peer pressuring her into doing negative things…

That presented me with an opportunity, and a window, to really provide impact in one student’s life. And since then, I paid for her to go to our Thompson Island Summer Project program. I’ve worked with her throughout the summer; I’ve worked with her throughout the school year, and really became more than a teacher. I became a mentor to her.

And I think I’ve seen change in her from over the summer, and I see change in her this school year, and it’s just a good story to tell when you think about the work that we do, and that it’s not only about getting their grades up. It’s about helping them become whole people, and that’s why I do the work that I do.


Teaching: There’s an App for That

  • November 9, 2011 by
  • 1 Comment

Otto Katt is a Second Year Teaching Fellow at the Irving Middle School in Roslindale, MA

Archery Apprenticeship

At Citizen Schools there are some things we do really well, and one of those things is apprenticeships. Apprenticeships are 10 week classes where students learn from volunteer experts and then present what they have learned to an audience. Like the applications that make your smartphone – well smart, apprenticeships are what make learning dynamic and impactful. Phone apps and apprenticeships share more than a prefix, they are accessories that enhance and improve. Apps make your phone into more than a device that makes calls, they transform it into a device capable of a incredibly wide range of functions. Just like apprenticeships bring volunteers into the classroom to transform learning into an incredibly wide range of 21st century subjects.

Need to know when the bus is coming, there’s an app for that. Want to find amazing tacos, there’s an app for that. Have a predilection for creepy dolls, yes there is an app for that too. The variety and dimensions of phone apps is endless, as is the gamut of apprenticeships.

NASA Apprenticeship

One reason apprenticeships are so special is because they not only impact the student, but also the volunteer, the teacher, families, schools, and communities. Apprenticeships, because of their vibrant nature, are a powerful way to make lasting impressions on multiple constituencies.

I’ve had the opportunity to support a variety of apprenticeships. One of the most successful experiences I had was with my database design apprenticeship. At the beginning I was nervous. I knew nothing about databases, let alone designing one. But, I was extremely fortunate to work with a volunteer who was not only passionate about her field, but also compassionate towards exposing students to opportunities and experiences they would otherwise never have. It was a struggle explaining to students cardinality versus optionality. I still don’t understand what entity relationships are. And don’t ask me why there is a crow’s foot on my database design.

What I do know, is that for 10 weeks my student learned and were exposed to material and opportunities the vast majority of their peers will never have known even existed. I saw how a local business was able to make connections with a community and its school. I heard from thrilled parents who shared that their child was so excited about the potential to work in field that will only continue to grow as technology progresses.

Robotics Apprenticeship

As an educator you are often limited to working in your subject area.  Apprenticeships allow you the opportunity to teach subject matter you may have no familiarity with. You are forced to collaborate and come up with ways to engage students.  Apprenticeships are a microcosm of what learning should be: exciting, hands-on, relevant, engaging, inclusive, etc. etc. I know that learning is a complicated process. What is simple, is learning that is diverse and exciting- is learning that will make a difference.

Otto is interested in crazy phone apps you’ve encountered, and ideas that would make great apprenticeships.