Some Civics classes visited Pennsylvania College of Technology to become senators for a day.

The trip was part of a student government seminar put on by Senator Gene Yaw.

Students arrived at the Penn Tech field house for breakfast and a presentation, then were split off into committees. Each committee was assigned a bill, which they would amend and vote on with the help of various supervisors.

Some bills were based on real life examples, while others were made for the seminar. There were bills about gun rights, marijuana legalization, bullying, and more.

After all bills had been voted on, students would meet back up and vote again as a whole body on those proposed laws that had passed in committee. This seminar was supposed to be an accurate representation of how United States senators spend their day in Congress.

“The goal was to educate students about the legislative process and have them actively participate in a simulated session of the PA state senate,” Mr. Richards, who took some Civics students on the trip, said. “They learned about the steps of the legislative process and all the factors that lawmakers need to consider when making decisions on potential laws.”