Local Nonprofit Will Take Nevada’s Students to Court With Virtual Field Trips
Project REAL is improving student behavior by connecting them with Nevada’s many judges
Las Vegas – February 23, 2020 – Law related education nonprofit Project REAL has teamed up with judges throughout the state of Nevada to offer virtual field trips to local students. These ‘Virtual Visits’ improve behavior in students while teaching them about laws, constitutional rights, and career opportunities in the American court systems.
The organization’s virtual field trips last 45 minutes, with judges first discussing their paths to the bench before opening up the session to questions from the students. Each classroom has its own unique experience thanks to the variety of judges participating – judges from both the state and federal court systems have signed up to participate. Having connected with many teachers already, Project REAL is happy to announce they have a number of these virtual field trips still available for educators and parents that would like to reserve them.
“We knew our local judges were committed to serving the community, but the response we received when we asked them to volunteer still managed to shock us! We are extremely grateful for their eagerness to mentor our students, and have more than 50 virtual field trip opportunities to offer the community thanks to their support. Now we want to make sure their generosity is fully benefiting the community by making sure every one of those virtual trips gets used by classrooms here in Nevada” said Project REAL’s Senior Director, Mike Kamer.
Project REAL reports that these brief sessions make a significant contribution to community safety throughout Nevada. Each year since the 2015-2016 school year when the organization first began collecting feedback, at least 84% of students reported wanting to improve their behavior after attending one of the field trips.
The first few virtual court visits of the current school year have already taken place, with Las Vegas Justice Court’s Judge Harmony Letizia having presided over two 5th grade classrooms from Twitchell Elementary. As the Justice of the Peace observed, “Each time I speak to students, they are fascinated by criminal law and procedure. It is one of my favorite ways to donate my time by helping to teach these students a basic understanding of the law. Project REAL’s field trips are providing a crucial context to these students and giving them a cursory distinction between rules and laws.”
Thanks to the judges that have already volunteered, Project REAL has a surplus of roughly 50 fieldtrips remaining. Teachers can request a reservation and parents can request more information at https://projectrealnv.org/
Questions or requests for additional comments on the Virtual Visit courthouse field trips from Project REAL should be directed to Project REAL’s Senior Director Mike Kamer at mkamer@projectrealnv.org or (702) 703-6529.
Additional comment requests for Judge Harmony Letizia should be directed to her Judicial Executive Assistant Adriana Martinez at Adriana.Martinez@
Project REAL, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, was founded 15 years ago by Sam Lionel and Irwin Molasky to meet the challenge of teaching young students the importance of the law. Project REAL has taught over 185,000 Nevada students about laws with the goal of preparing them to be informed, law-abiding and participatory citizens through courthouse field trips, mock trials, and unique in-class lessons and activities. For more information or to make a financial contribution so more students could benefit, please visit http://projectrealnv.org.
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Local nest station KSNV provided some excellent coverage of our announcement! Be sure to check that piece out here:
https://news3lv.com/news/local/project-real-students-legal-education-las-vegas
