Leonardtown, MD – Five current and former St. Mary’s Ryken High School students spent the summer in the Law Offices of Baldwin & Briscoe, P.C. in Lexington Park working together on a 500 page review of Historic Sotterley Plantation in Hollywood, Maryland. Under the direction of St. Mary’s Ryken Mock Trial teacher, Samuel C.P. Baldwin, Jr. the students transcribed interviews, edited articles, and posted both audio and video clips on the Internet as part of the John Hanson Briscoe Historic Project.

The Law Offices of Baldwin & Briscoe, P.C. has hosted summer interns from St. Mary’s Ryken for the past seven years. The interns working there this summer were: John Sterling Houser, class of 2011 (currently a first year student at Washington and Lee School of Law), Rachel Murree, student from 2009-2011 (currently a sophomore at Georgetown University), and St. Mary’s Ryken juniors Gia Beaton, Michaela Guy and Dargenae Somerville.

“There is no way in the world that this project could ever have been completed without the coordinated effort of these five students. I have been researching this material for almost one year and as the students returned home from school in May and June we hit the ground running with final drafting. The product that is on the Internet now is the result of at least four re-writes and revisions”.

John Houser and Rachel Murree, who have been interns for seven and six years respectively, have now edited approximately 1,000 pages of historical material. The articles can be found by searching “The John Hanson Briscoe Historical Project”.

All of the St. Mary’s Ryken interns have expressed an interest in eventually pursuing a legal career.

St. Mary’s Ryken is a Catholic, coeducational, college preparatory high school community operated under the Xaverian Brothers’ sponsorship dedicated to academic excellence and individualized student growth. Students come from many different counties across the region including Anne Arundel, Calvert, Charles, King George, Prince George’s and St. Mary’s. Each year, approximately 99% of graduates go to college, and the Class of 2015 earned $17 million in college scholarships. To learn more, visit smrhs.org.