XFYD has recently concluded its Law and Governance class. This class is in line with XFYD’s mission of providing students integral skills and enrichment opportunities that schools simply do not teach. Our class is not just for students interested in law or politics — it’s civics that is integral for all American citizens to know.
This class was led by Jake McGill and Jonathan Rios. Jonathan has years of experience with studying the legal system, being a leader in Whitney’s Mock Trial Team. Through this experience, Jonathan has been able to compete in student-led court cases like a real attorney, study court cases and legal doctrines, and even shadow law offices and LA courthouses! Jonathan is one of the nation’s top competitors — his team once placed third out of over 200 competitors!
Jake McGill leads our government classes with years of experience. Being and AP United States History student and longtime student of politics and legislative processes in the past, Jake brings his deep political science insights to the class.
This class approached law and governance through hands-on interaction and participation. After all, law and democracy depend solely on the participation of the populace, so our teachers structured their lessons around having students participate in leadership processes as much as possible. At our very first governance class, students were even able to form their own government, vote amongst themselves for president, and pass laws! This was all a very informative process that Jake used to teach the concepts of veto, the two houses of Congress, and how politics and negotiations work on Capitol Hill.
When students learned Law, they similarly had a hands-on and interactive introduction to the diverse complexities of the legal system. Several of our students wanted to pursue a career in Law — Jonathan wowed their curiosities by exploring the diverse fields and subfields lawyers could focus on, such as tort law, employment law, and human rights law. Jonathan even led a project where students could mock the legal process, crafting a holistic introduction to the legal field.
