Macalester sophomore women's soccer players Rosie Glenn-Finer (San Francisco, Calif. / Lick Wilmerding) and Rachel Lochner (Eagan, Minn. / Visitation) were chosen as one of the five finalist undergraduate collaborations as part of a national competition through Project Pericles. They wrote a policy letter on the need for comprehensive mental health education for youth in Minnesota and a national panel judged their work to be among the best undergraduate work in the Project Pericles network.

On March 23rd-25, Pericles will fly Glenn-Finer and Lochner to New York City as part of Pericles' annual undergraduate "Debating for Democracy" conference where they will present on the issue.
The other students being recognized and presenting are students from Hendrix College, Swarthmore, Carleton, and Allegheny.

The five Letters to an elected official that will be featured in the Legislative Hearings at the 2011 Debating for Democracy (D4D) National Conference on March 24 at Pace University. The letters proposed innovative solutions on a wide variety of issues ranging from renewable energy to mental health education to K-12 education reform. These letters were sent to more than 100 elected officials from around the United States.

The finalist letters and the student team that wrote the letter are:

Allegheny College, “A letter to State Senator Mary Jo White on the Alternative Energy Portfolio Standards Act,” by Brian Anderson and Mingyuan Song

Carleton College, "A letter to Representative John Kline on the Elementary and Secondary Education Act," by Anna Fure Slocum and Nick Welna

Hendrix College, “A letter to State Representative Elliot Naishtat on the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact,” by Nick Bemberg and Jacob Porter

Macalester College, “A letter to State Senator Richard J. Cohen on the Mental Health Model Curriculum Creation,” by Rosie Glenn-Finer and Rachel Lochner

Swarthmore College, “A letter to Congresswoman Allyson Schwartz on Implementing a National Financial Literacy program,” by Ariel Finegold and Tyler Hanson

At the legislative hearing on March 24, one of these teams will be selected as the winning team and will receive a $3,000 award to develop an advocacy campaign related to the issue they wrote about. The four semifinalist teams will each receive a $500 award also to be used to develop an advocacy campaign to move their issue forward.

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