By Karxyriah Ashley
You’re never too young to be informed about what’s going on in today’s world. Students all over Texas have gathered in Austin for the 2019 Youth and Government (YAG) State Conference. While the experience is special to every person there, for some it’s a bitter sweet moment: the seniors.
In Legislative, seniors have worked for months created bill topics, making provisions, penalties, and opening and closing statements to make their last state conference special. While rewards are given at the end of the conference the rewards go beyond just medals.
Being in Youth and Government has prepared many students as they go off into the real world and began to participate in the real-world government.
One delegate, Jaylon Banks of the Oak Cliff delegation, said, “Being in legislative helped me understand state government because I mainly just knew about federal. All young people should know how government works because they need to be informed. There’s too many people voting based off of what they see on Twitter and Instagram and not voting based on how their mind and their economics tell them.”
Banks now knows how important state government is and that he wouldn’t have realized that without the help of Youth and Government.
Even though this is his first and last year being in Youth and Government, senior, Shaheer Rahman, reflects on the impact YAG has had on him.
“Before, I wasn’t as confident when I was speaking in front of crowds. I would get really jittery and nervous, said Rahman.
He believes “Young people in our country are the future voters and they need to be educated about how the process works because they are going to be making the decisions for the future.”
“Without [Youth and Government] I wouldn’t understand how the debates actually take place because there are procedures and set formats,” Rahman said.
Lastly, Elana Breslav, enjoys “being put in the shoes of actual members of the government.”
“I can now understand where they come from and I am a more aware citizen,” Breslav said. “Now, I am able to learn about different problems that are happening in the world that I wasn’t aware of before. Young people should be a part of Youth and Government because some people are sheltered away from problems that are happening in the world,” Breslav said.
“Thanks to YAG, I’m more aware of how tedious it is to actually have a bill be passed and how many different opinions people have,” Breslav said.
Although these are only the stories of few senior delegates, almost every single delegate can relate to Youth and Government preparing them for the real-world in some way, shape, or form.
As the seniors graduate and go off into reality, they will now have a better understanding of what it takes to be apart of real-world government.