Student Blog

The Liberty Tree Seminar, founded in 2012, aims to foster students' ability to articulate their opinions with sound reasoning while encouraging them to critique and question existing arguments and systems with an open mind. The seminars delve into controversial subjects, including security, global citizenship, and religious freedom, to mention a few. During these sessions, students are organized into groups to discuss cases and engage in simulations where they hold the authority to establish laws mirroring real-world regulatory frameworks. The seminars also provide an opportunity for students to hear from experts on said topics. Recent sessions featured Professor Mark D. Hall from Regent University who is serving as a Senior Research Fellow for Religion, Culture & Democracy at the First Liberty Institute. Dr. Cooney works alongside Greg Schaller, who holds the position of President of the John Jay Institute and Chair at Cairn University, specializing in Politics, Philosophy, and History. Each seminar begins with a keynote talk and a free dinner that is provided for the delegates to promote connections between themselves and the professors.

The seminar was first conducted at universities within Washington state and came to APU in 2015 with 16 students participating. The seminar only grew in popularity within APU in the following years, collecting up to 70-80 applicants to be sorted by the hosts. It is important that no matter how many apply, the final delegate pool stays relatively small (around 24-30) to ensure that every opinion or voice can be heard.

Francis Gregorio, a 3rd-semester APU student majoring in International Relations whom I interviewed, is a recent delegate at this semester’s seminar on the theme of international religious liberty. This was his second Liberty Tree Seminar, as he joined the 2022 seminar that focused on security and civil liberties. He highlights how the seminar helped him structure debates, provide and receive criticism, and develop polished solutions with his peers' help. These skills come in especially handy in his experience as one of the core members of RitMUNC* APU. His experience resonates with mine as I was also a delegate at last spring’s seminar that focused on Immigration. I found that I was able to hear from multiple voices that were shaped by different backgrounds and identities about relevant issues that would eventually be ours to handle in the future.