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| Kyle Hilbrecht Class of 2018 |
Directly, the Patriot Act should mean nothing to me. I am not an immigrant, nor am I involved in money laundering or organized crime (three things that the Patriot Act deals with), so why should I care? I care because this month, I will be fortunate enough to go to Boston to visit the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the U.S. Senate. The Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate is “dedicated to educating the public about the important role of the Senate in our government, encouraging participatory democracy, invigorating civil discourse, and inspiring the next generation of citizens and leaders to engage in the civic life of their communities.” Basically, it is a center for explaining why exactly the Senate matters in the United States government and how exactly they go about their business, and I was lucky enough to be part of the process of making that happen.
This month I will see the culmination of my work with the Edward M. Kennedy Institute, and I could not be more excited. A few of my fellow McConnell Scholars and I put together an entire simulation of the passage of the Patriot Act: what senators were there at the time, what the interests of the states were at the time, how this would matter to foreign policy, and a whole host of other factors that go into bill passage. I will freely admit that this was a difficult project, probably one of the more difficult projects that I have taken on in my college career. There were times that I was sure I had bitten off more than I could chew and was tempted to bow out, but I think that if you don’t have that thought once and a while you’re not doing anything that is all that worthwhile. I truly challenged myself whilst working on the Patriot Act simulation, and I am happy to say that our work showed. Among the Kennedy Institute’s target audience, middle school and high schoolers, the Patriot Act simulation is one of the most popular. I am very proud of myself and the team that I worked with for voluntarily creating something tangible and useful to the public good despite the mountain of research and hard work that we had in front of us. I am really looking forward to seeing how our hard work paid off.
Kyle Hilbrecht is a sophomore McConnell Scholar at the University of Louisville. He studies political science.