Recently Sage’s Mock Trial team competed in a competition led by the Constitutional Rights Foundation of Orange County, resulting in a first time win for junior Lynn Fong in the courtroom art division.

Mock Trial is a program that teaches students of court law and procedure, as well as promotes public speaking skills and leadership.The Constitutional Rights Foundation of Orange County gives approximately 1,000 students from more than 35 local high schools a chance to showcase their skills and interests in Mock Trial.

Although Fong is not an official member of Sage’s Mock Trial team, she was given the opportunity to be a courtroom artist by member senior Namita Prakash.

“I was honored to be invited. I was emailed by Namita and she knew I was interested in art, and I was thankful that she thought about me. It sounded fun. I went there, and it was fun,” Fong said.

The purpose of Mock Trial is to simulate hypothetical criminal court cases and teach students how to conduct trial proceedings. Lynn Fong, currently a student in AP Art, had the task of drawing a scene representative of the trial.

“I drew Crystal Yu because she was talking very passionately and it was really cool,” Lynn said.

The trial proceedings are meant to inspire students to pursue an interest in law. The standards held by Mock Trial are meant to be similar to those of an actual trial.

“They told me to bring something to draw with, something draw on, and paper in weirdly specific proportions. At the trial, there was a podium for the speakers, a judge, two sides for the competing teams, a side for the witnesses, and the jury. They had me sit on the side where the jury sat,” Fong said.

Sage’s Mock Trial team is headed by Spanish teacher Diego Izurieta and includes students Namita Prakash, Maru Sefami, Kimya Sadeghi, Tiffany Taylor, Jonathan Stark, Sydney Yebisu, Arya Nanda, Crystal Yu, Manu Nanda, Farooq Ansari, and Sarah Kim.