Mat-Su College observes ‘Constitution Day'

In recognition of Sept. 17 as Constitution Day, Mat-Su College invited students to participate in a contest, which used creative expression to demonstrate an understanding of the U.S. Constitution.

Aurora Rogers, a second semester student at Mat-Su College was this year’s winner. Her project can be seen on our Facebook page, Facebook.com/MSCDragons or in the News section online at Matsu.Alaska.edu/News.

In 2005, the Department of Education’s Assistant Deputy Secretary for Innovation and Improvement in conjunction with Congressional legislation implemented Constitution and Citizenship Day. The law stipulates that any educational institutions receiving federal funding must hold an educational program pertaining to the U.S. Constitution on Sept. 17 of each year. The Constitution Day Contest was, in part, Mat-Su College’s answer to that mandate.

The Constitution Day Contest attracted participants who showed their knowledge of the founding document through creative means such as essays, art and multimedia.

Rogers’s winning entry — a movie — concentrated on the reasons that the U.S. Constitution works and has endured when so many other countries’ constitutions have failed. Her main contention: the U.S. Constitution is of the people, by the people, and for the people and thus, it works. It worked when it was written. It works now. It will keep on working in the years to come. Because it was, after all, written for and by we the people.

Submitted by Mat-Su College Academic Counselor Kim Bloomstrom