fb

MFS Gearing Up for 16th Mock Primary Election – Tuesday, January 14

Jan 9, 2020

Continuing a 60-year quadrennial tradition, the 16th MFS Mock Primary Election (MPE) will be held Tuesday, January 14. Students in grades 5-12 will participate in a full slate of activities throughout the day. The event will include the traditional entrance parade, political speeches from the candidates, final campaigning efforts, and educational workshops. Workshops will cover topics and feature activities surrounding politics or governance covering a wide spectrum, including political humor, the Electoral College, the impact of public speaking, social activism, international relations, and much more.

The keynote speaker will be journalist Ray Suarez, co-host of WorldAffairs, a nationally syndicated radio broadcast that airs on KQED public radio out of San Francisco and uploaded to rebroadcast by National Public Radio (NPR) stations around the country. His remarks will cover “Changing Demographics of American Voters.” Suarez recently completed an appointment as the John J. McCloy Visiting Professor of American Studies at Amherst College. Most recently, he was the host of Inside Story, a daily news program on Al Jazeera America, until that network ceased operation in 2016. Suarez joined the PBS NewsHour in 1999 and was a senior correspondent for the evening news program on the PBS television network until 2013. He hosted the National Public Radio program Talk of the Nation from 1993-1999. In his more than 30-year career in the news business, he has also worked as a radio reporter in London and Rome, as a Los Angeles correspondent for CNN, and as a reporter for the NBC-owned station WMAQ-TV in Chicago.

During the midday period, students will attend workshops led by faculty, staff, and students. Highlighting the workshops will be offerings by Ray Suarez (“Politics, The Media, and the First Amendment”) and celebrity chef Gail Arnold ’79 (“Cooking with the Executive [Chef]).” Arnold, who has worked as an executive chef and private chef for Steven Spielberg, has cooked for Michelle Obama, Hillary and Bill Clinton, Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, Tom Stoppard, Brad Pitt, Gwyneth Paltrow, Tom Hanks and countless other celebrities and dignitaries. She will describe her experiences as an executive chef and as a private chef and will also discuss her experience as a female moving up the corporate ladder.

Click here to read more about the MFS Mock Primary Election.

Past News