For the past three years, the Youth and Government Club of Old Saybrook High School has journeyed to the state capitol to debate bills, practice public speaking, and build connections with peers of different backgrounds and experiences. This year delegates left on March 6th and returned the morning of March 8th. Mrs. Torre, the advisor of the Youth and Government Club, explains,“Youth and Government is a YMCA run program that enables students to actively participate in the legislative process, such as bill writing, the passage of bills, and the veto process.”
More specifically, students were able to practice sharing their bills in small committees before presenting them in the Senate or House of Representatives the following day. This year, bills covered a range of topics: English as a second language learner (ESL) training in schools, the addition of pickle ball courts in town spaces, reducing pollution, and so many more. Marie-Therese Morosky, the president and founder of the Youth and Government Club at OSHS, wrote a bill concerning insider training. She said, “[The bill] tries to prevent government corruption and make sure that our government officials aren’t voting for or against stocks that they are investing in or not investing in, because government corruption is so common.” Her bill, among the majority of the bills created by OSHS students in this club, were passed, and later approved by the governor of the conference.
In terms of the whole OSHS group, Torre felt proud of all the students involved. Regarding the club’s strengths, Torre said, “I think our strengths were that we had a big group of 12th graders that were able to lead the way and act as role models for the younger underclassmen.” But unfortunately for the club this was also a double edged sword, as it means there will be a smaller number of people in the club next year. Torre said that having a large number of seniors was “sort of a weakness [for the club] as our enrollment in the group is going to be going way down, and so we really need to recruit and get some more kids to participate.”
Speaking to the experience of participating in the club, Morosky said, ”I want people to get more involved; I think [Youth and Government] has a lot of benefits. It can develop your public speaking skills and also it could spark your possible future love for politics [if] you would want to get involved in it when you are older!” Not only are you able to learn about the process of making a bill, and then getting it passed, but you are also able to learn it in a mock setting that is very accurate. As Mrs. Torre put it, Youth and Government is, “a great opportunity. It’s more than a resume builder— it’s a way to connect with other students from other schools. It’s a way to better understand your civic duty as American citizens and to understand the process that some of our legislators are going through on a daily basis.”
