A local Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe School 5th grade citizenship project represented Wisconsin at the Project Citizen National Showcase Hearing in Philadelphia during July.

The 5th grade project "Limiting Buses Helps Environment,” created by Arianna Crone, Jaime Vega, Joseph DeNasha, and Robyn Trepania had been selected as the first place rating at a hearing showcase in Madison and was evaluated along with 49 other citizenship projects.

Wisconsin State Senator Robert Jauch was invited to attend the Project Citizen National Showcase in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania as an evaluator in conjunction with the National Conference of State Legislators Legislative Summit.

The LCO project earned an “Exceptional” rating at the National Showcase and the project be displayed at the National Competition in Miami, Florida later this year.

The students have also been invited to present their project this October in Milwaukee at the National Indian Education Association 40th Annual Convention.

Project Citizen is an international civic education program for middle school to post-secondary students sponsored by the Center for Civic Education. Participating student groups identify problems within their community and work together to decide on one specific issue to solve. They then conduct research on the history of the issue, explore public policy solutions, and finally identify an active solution to the problem they have chosen to solve. The project culminates in poster board presentations at public hearing showcases in front of civic leaders.

The Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe School students recognized an issue affecting their local and global community: pollution and the over use of fossil fuels. They agreed to find a way to reduce the money spent by their community on fuel and decrease the emission of harmful greenhouse gasses.

"Though I didn't officially score this project, I reviewed every portfolio and considered it to be one of the highest quality projects on display,” Senator Jauch said