Jefferson junior wins Know Your Constitution contest

CEDAR RAPIDS - Veronica Day, a junior at Jefferson High School, will be in Washington, D.C. Feb. 21 through Feb. 26 as a winner of the Know Your Constitution contest.

Day will be accompanied by teacher Chris Rolwes.

Sponsored by the Iowa State Bar Association's Young Lawyers Division, the annual contest is designed to encourage high school youth to learn more about the constitutions of both the United States and the state of Iowa.

Each fall, a quiz with 50 multiple choice questions and one essay question is distributed to high school students all over the state. After all quizzes are returned to the ISBA office, the YLD committee grades them, selecting up to 100 finalists, one from each Iowa House district.

More than 600 exams were submitted in this year's contest. Day was one of 100 finalists. The five winners of an all-expense-paid trip to Washington D.C. were randomly selected.

As one of the five winners, Day will attend the Close Up program. Close Up uses Washington, D.C. as a living classroom, giving students an opportunity to see government and democracy in action. Day will have the opportunity to interact with members of Congress on Capitol Hill and visit the Supreme Court.