Millikin separates itself academically with the method of performance learning. Recently, Millikin traveled to the state’s capital to attend the Model Illinois Government competition and moot court competition, where students did extremely well in both.

The competition is offered to students through the political science, the philosophy and the criminal justice programs. Dr. Bobbi Gentry, head of the political science program believes that the competitions are examples of performance learning.

“It’s a big performance learning collaborative experience,” Gentry said. “Students are allowed to work together and compromise on different bills and other conflicts with not just other Millikin Students but students from all over the state of Illinois.”

Gentry is in charge of the Model Illinois Government side of the competition.  The simulation allows for students to act as an actual government and vote on bills as well as elect high ranking members of government. The competition requires a lot of preparation as well as communication with other students involved in the competition.

This year Millikin had a student, Aaron Thomas, elected as Lieutenant Governor which is the second highest ranking position in the whole competition. This was Aaron’s third year participating in the competition and has always had an interest in politics.

“I’ve thought about Politics for a long time, I’ve always had an interest in Politics and getting involved in the community,” Thomas said. “Change starts somewhere and I believe I can make a change through Politics.”

Thomas has been progressing in rank all three years he has participated in the competition. Each year he is allowed to give a speech to his peers, which gives them incentive to vote for him. Moving up the ladder has always been Thomas’s goal throughout the competition.  He also looks to get other students at Millikin interested in politics and interested in getting involved in the process.

“We have a great support system here and we enjoy having new faces,” Thomas said. “We enjoy experience and we also enjoy inexperience. It just takes desire and will to participate in the competition.”

Students also have the choice to participate in the moot court side of the competition, which is ran by Dr. Robert Money. In moot court students are allowed to act as attorneys and compete with other schools at competition. Millikin has done extremely well at this event and this year two students, Alice Dembinski and Kara Anderson won the competition.

The workload for this side of the competition is intense. Competitors are allowed to argue one side of the case with their teammates against another team of students through a limited amount of rounds.

“We worked really hard as a team, we had so much research and other work to do it made us all focus in so that we could get the job done,” Dembinski said.

This is Dembinski’s first year in the competition and she says she is definitely planning on participating in next year’s competition.  During the competition a student can be judged on so many different thing besides their argument in the case. Alice said this really helped her give it her best.

“The judges had no sympathy for you when you get up there,” Dembinski said. “It was definitely a practice in being judged overall. It was also a practice in work ethic for me as well.” Presentation was key in order to win the competition. Alice said that after every round the team had to go back and do more research in order to attack the other team’s argument or strengthen their own. The competition required students to work hard and actively learn.

Performance learning allows for students to get involved in their field of study and gain valuable experience. Gaining experience allows a student to decide whether or not they enjoy the field they decided to study or they would rather change their major and possibly find new career ideas. For example, Dembinski has made it clear she plans not to go in to the field of law because the competition helped her realize that’s not what she wanted to do.

It’s always significant to hear about the success of students around campus. Hopefully at the Model Illinois conference Millikin will continue to have success as new students begin to get involved with the program as time progresses.