How Classical Education Prepared These Teens for D.C.

**Owen Burrill** (0:00)
To get the best understanding of why the Constitution was chosen, well, it's definitely a lot. Reading through the Federalist Papers really gives you an understanding because they thoroughly explain why they chose this option. I would not recommend doing it how I did it, for studying and doing them all in one night. Not fun.
Pace yourself, please.

**Elisha Hoey** (0:22)
In Challenge 2, we've been going through virtue a lot and reasoning.
It's just really cool just to see it intertwining with both history for this competition and our reasoning strand. Montesquieu talks about virtue being a necessary spring of popular government. Washington in his farewell address, he also talks about virtue being necessary for even all free governments. That was truly cool.

**SPEAKER_3** (0:49)
Your organization is known worldwide and we certainly appreciate every facet that you do.

**Owen Burrill** (0:54)
I do believe in what you're doing because I've seen it in my family.

**SPEAKER_4** (0:58)
I'm so excited about all the things that Robert, you guys do with Classical Conversations. It's been a huge blessing for our family.

**Elisha Hoey** (1:04)
Grateful for the work at Classical Conversations. You're a leader and you have been in this movement for a long time.

**SPEAKER_5** (1:09)
We love Classical Conversations. I do feel like I have a debt of gratitude to you, your family, all of CC for just the fruit that has come from CC.

**SPEAKER_3** (1:21)
I appreciate all that you guys do both through this wonderful podcast and also through Classical Conversations, which I am convinced is the best education resource out there. Thank you very much for all that you do for the cause of Christ and for our families and for our children. Really, really appreciate it.

**Robert Bortins** (1:36)
Hey, everyone, and welcome to another informative episode of Refining Rhetoric. Today, I'm super excited to be joined by two Classical Conversations students. They are participating in the United States Presidential 1776 Award. They were two of the national finalists, which are their only 20 selected. So Owen Burrill and Elisha Hoey are with me today. This is a national civics competition sponsored by the US. Department of Education, celebrating America's 250th anniversary.
They were eligible for students 9th through 12th grade. They had a 90-minute online multiple-choice test, in-person regional semifinals with oral short answer rounds, and a national finalist event in Washington, DC. That just wrapped up. I believe they're televising the event at the end of the month on June 30th. It was held at the Kennedy Trump Center, or Trump-Kennedy Center, or I guess the law lawyers now say it's just the Kennedy Center again. But either way, out of all the students nationwide, I think over hundreds of thousands of them, Owen and Elisha are among the 20 finalists who have a chance of winning the grand prize of $150,000.
So without further ado, welcome to the show. And Owen, I'll let you introduce yourself first.

**Owen Burrill** (2:56)
All right. I'm an incoming Challenge 4 student. I'll be attending that next year. I quite enjoy studying history, theology, and politics. Those are three areas that I like to read about. I'm 18 years old. I'm a native of Kansas, good old Kansas.
I enjoy hiking and camping with my fellow Boy Scouts. I recently got my Eagle Scout last November.
My project was, I constructed a stone patio for a local nonprofit historical site. And I enjoy stuff like that. Quite passionate about those little fields that I hold to my heart.

**Robert Bortins** (3:37)
Awesome. All right. And how long have you been in CC?

**Owen Burrill** (3:43)
I've been in CC for six years.

**Robert Bortins** (3:45)
OK, awesome. All right, Elisha, welcome to the show. Tell us a little bit about yourself.

**Elisha Hoey** (3:52)
Yes, so I am 15 I'll be 16 pretty soon.
I'm currently a sophomore, but I'll be going into my junior year for Challenge 3
I've been in Classical Conversations for three years now. A couple of things I really enjoy doing. I really like running. It's something I've really had a lot of fun with. Studying history is something I've always liked doing. I've been getting more interested in politics too, especially with this competition, learning more about our government.

**Robert Bortins** (4:24)
Nice. So I'll stay with you, Elisha.
What did you find out about the competition? Did your mom make you do it? Yeah, just talk to us about like why you decided to enter.

**Elisha Hoey** (4:35)
Yeah. So I actually didn't really know a lot about this. Probably in January, we had a couple of friends here in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
They were really into history.
Actually, their two daughters were going to be in this competition as well. Unfortunately, they didn't make it to the finals. But they told us about this. At first, I wasn't really sure if I actually wanted to do it. But I was like, well, it's a great chance to learn more about history. And I've always been interested in the American Revolution. And I thought this would be a good chance to learn a lot more about it, and especially about things before it and that affected it.