Conference Lets Ravens Flex Citizen Leadership Skills

While the 2021 YMCA Youth and Government Conference — a staple of experiential learning for Upper School students for more than a decade — took place virtually this year, Ravens continued to reach new heights with their outstanding work in both the legislative and judicial spheres.

The conference was broken up over two weekends to accommodate the logistical challenges of remote participation. Students involved in the legislative branch activities attended Feb. 12-14, and students involved in the judicial branch attended Feb. 19-21. 

Co-Director of College Counseling Sean Kennedy, one of the program’s advisors, said of the experience, “I cannot remember a year with greater challenges to participating in this program. I also cannot remember a year where I was prouder of our students for excelling as they did in the face of those obstacles.” Here is his summary of the events.

Legislative Branch

This year’s legislative group had more students in legislative support roles than ever before, including multiple Committee Chairs and Floor Leaders, both of which were unique challenges in a virtual setting. Our Budget Analysts and Lobbyists not only fulfilled their assignments exceedingly well, but they also offered incredible support to our nine legislative bill presentations throughout the conference. This additional support proved timely and critical on many occasions, helping to ensure that our bills advanced through multiple legislative committees and chambers. Particularly exciting was Alexa Shaffer ’22’s being named Model Lobbyist, given to the top lobbyist at the conference, and Senior Lobbyist for the Senate at next year’s conference. 

Our students prepared nine bills for the conference. To be signed into law by the Youth Governor (the top achievement for a bill), a bill must pass through four rounds of legislative debate, discussion, and questioning, with the bill authors needing to present and defend their bills in each round. All nine bills passed the first round, eight survived the second and third, and a new record seven bills advanced to the final round, the Governor’s Cabinet, for final consideration. Of those seven, three bills were signed into law! These three bills were:

• Dylan Norona ’22 and Ethan Erickson ’22’s bill on nursing home entertainment

• Mike Hollingshead ’23 and Jacob Suh ’23’s bill on panic-defense prohibition in LGTBQ+ hate crimes

• Ethan McMinn ’24’s bill banning SLAPP lawsuits (a first for the conference, as ninth-graders have never been able to present to the Governor’s Cabinet before)

Judicial Branch

Our nine Mock Trial attorneys, spread across four teams, had an outstanding weekend as well. The preparation for Mock Trial involves months of study of an 82-page case document, work in teams of students from around the state, and at least four trial rounds with real attorneys as judges and courtroom evaluators observing and rating each student. 

With only two teams of the seven total teams eligible for the Mock Trial All-Star Round, there was opportunity for both joy and disappointment among our students waiting to learn who advanced. We were excited to have one student, Chloe Adams ’23, as a member of an All-Star Round Team. Even more exciting was that Chloe’s team won the All-Star Round! The great news did not stop there though, as we learned that Nyla Moore ’24 was named Model First-Year Delegate in Mock Trial for her outstanding performance throughout the conference.  

Thank you to following for their valuable contributions along the way:

• History/Social Studies teacher and government guru Phil Kantaros, for supporting the students with bill ideas and pre-conference training, and the History/Social Studies Department, for developing a curiosity within our students to explore government beyond their textbooks and lectures.

• YAG Executive Board legislative students Mark Naslund ’21, Josh Youngbar ’21, Clarke Haywood ’21, Nick Fay ’21, Eugene Lee ’22 and Simone Baldwin ’22 for helping me with ideas and advice to better support our delegation and for one-on-one support to students in their various roles. Mark served as our legislative Student Delegation Leader, which required additional time on calls with the YMCA and with additional student support before and during the conference.

• Alex Jones ’21 and Sierra Riley ’21 for their support to me as members of the YAG Executive Board and for their mentoring of our other Mock Trial delegates. 

• English and World Language departments for developing the writing and communication skills needed to present, argue and debate confidently in new and unfamiliar settings.

• The John William Pope Foundation for the generous support to fund all YAG student registration fees for yet another year.

Congratulations to all of the participants in this year’s Youth and Government Convention: