We are the representative team of the Future Forum capstone project. Our names are Stella Alexander, Matthew Gosselin, & Henry Scott, and we are students in the Center for Leadership and International Relations at James River High School.

As part of the Leadership Specialty Center, we are tasked with putting on a community capstone event. The Future Forum is a Civic Engagement Debate Tournament geared at eighth grade students in the Richmond/Chesterfield community. It will be held at James River High School in Midlothian, Virginia the evening of November 19th from 3:30-9:00 pm. Each middle school will have their own team or teams of five participants who will be analyzed on their level of civic literacy, stakeholder engagement, central argument, counterclaim/rebuttals, and decorum. Each participating team will be given a civics “case,” with fictitious characters but real world applications and civics principles pertinent to their daily life on the local, state, and national level. The scores given by the judges will determine whether or not the teams will advance and win prizes from our sponsors.

In addition to strengthening their civic muscles in a competitive setting, students will also be given the opportunity to learn more about and support our beneficiary, The Virginia Museum of History and Culture. Furthermore, we are also hosting Virginia Delegate, R. Lee Ware to speak about the importance of youth involvement and civic responsibility.

Overall, we hope to provide a platform for youth in our community to participate in a team-oriented and forward-thinking civics style debate tournament, where they can use their civics knowledge to discuss “cases” that relate to their daily life, and most importantly, have an eventful, fulfilling evening.