During the summer, freshmen in John H. Glenn High School’s Mock Trial Team had a unique and exciting opportunity to work with professional lawyers, federal judges and FBI agents as part of a program designed to teach them about the U.S. legal system.

The “EDNY Justice Institute: Crime, the Constitution and the Courts,” is a week-long program, run by the federal court in conjunction with the Touro Law Center and the Eastern District of New York Chapter of the Federal Bar Association. 

The district’s four students, Abby Rothleder, Isabella Marino, Jack Rersnick and Max Slesinski, who all recently returned to high school as sophomores, observed real court proceedings and worked alongside prosecutors, defense lawyers and deputy U.S. Marshals to develop basic advocacy skills, which they used in a mock trial competition against high school teams from East Meadow and Great Neck South. 

The students won both competition rounds working as attorneys, according to the club’s adviser, Megan Gieser.