For the 16th time, Tahoma High’s We the People team took first place at the state competition in Olympia Jan. 7, and will go to Washington D.C. for the finals.

Out of the 18 years Tahoma has participated in the program, they have only lost twice as first runner up in 2007 and 2009.

“I am really excited for them,” said Gretchen Wulfing, who teaches the class at Tahoma. “They worked incredibly hard and earned it and I’m just thrilled for them.”

Kristen Jamieson said in a phone interview, “It was the best experience of my entire senior year, probably high school career.”

First offered in 1987, the We the People program is designed as both a senior class and a competition involving teams from high schools around the state. The teams are split up into different units which cover various aspects of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

During the competition, each unit, comprised of three to four students, is asked three questions and provided the opportunity to cooperatively prepare a four minute essay response, followed by a six minute individual questioning.

The journey to first place began well back in June 2011 when the students were assigned summer work in order to prepare for both the class and the competition. The students had to read their textbook, We the People, and write answers to the questions found at the end of the chapter, which resulted in seven page responses.

All of the assignments were due at the beginning of the first day of school.

According to senior Sadie Nelson, this strategy hit pay dirt when they arrived in Olympia.

“The work we did during the summer gave us the knowledge to use because once the school year started we had to prepare for districts,” she said. “So we had to be prepared before the school year started.”

Other students explained how the preparation helped in a competition scenario.

“It was nice because we got a background before we competed,” Barrett Weston said. “It wasn’t too rough. It was kind of what conditioned us to enjoy the process. It was definitely a bit of a chore.”

The team also benefited from previous year’s champions, according to Nelson, as well as study sessions which lasted until 9 p.m.

“Tahoma definitely has a legacy for We the People,” she said. “I think what really sets us apart is Gretchen pulls in old alumni, so students who have done it in the past come in during winter break and really help us understand what it takes to be the best. She also pulled in lawyers and we worked with a lot of staff who teach history and English to be an all-around team.”

Weston said the group’s overall knowledge allowed them to tackle questions which may have applied better to other units.

“We definitely did a lot of work with just our unit, but we worked on our chemistry as a group,” he said. “One of our questions was very comparable to another unit, so we asked each other deeper questions. I think that was a large part of what helped us succeed at state.”

Despite all of their preparation, the students encountered some tricky questions which required them to tailor their answers carefully.

“One of the questions we got was about political parties, which was hard for us because we didn’t want to say anything that was controversial or unfairly balanced,” Nelson said.

Even when they were asked about issues which they were not as informed about, such as victim impact statements, they were able to provide educated replies, according to Weston.

“It was the concept of the court system we were able to answer,” he said.”In that situation you can kind of give them what you know and it work to your advantage.”

Having won the state title, they will compete at the national event in Washington D.C. in April — if they can acquire the funds to get there.

Up until last year, the program received state and federal grant funding to fly to the East Coast for the competition. This year, however, the students must raise the necessary money due to budget cuts.

“That has been the hardest part about this,” Wulfing said.”All the federal money has been cut. We already have scheduled a dance and we will have other fundraising. We just don’t know what yet.”

In order to compete, they will need to raise $1,400 for each of the 22 students, $30,800 total.

According to Jamieson, some of the students are using their senior projects. They held a Halloween dance last October for Tahoma Junior High, which raised $500.

In the meantime, the team will have a few months of breathing space before the next competition.

“It was actually nice because we have such a long time to plan our what we’re going to do,” Weston said. “Gretchen is a huge help getting people together and getting things organized. She’s awesome. Just pretty much staying up to date and expanding our knowledge base.”