2007-08 Youth Governor
Erik Ashida
In 1965, Lyndon Johnson told the graduating class of Howard University that
it is the glorious opportunity of this generation to end the one huge wrong of the American Nation and, in so doing, to find America for ourselves, with the same immense thrill of discovery which gripped those who first began to realize that here, at last, was a home for freedom…
These words are still true a generation later, and this spirit of having young people discover what our country and its institutions mean to them and how they can contribute to them continues in the Youth and Government program. It gives us unparalleled access to the institutions of our state government, and then gives us the freedom to learn about them and make them our own.
I started Youth and Government my freshman year. I had just moved to Seattle and I was getting to know a new school and a new state. Because of Youth and Government—because I’ve made friends from across the state, gotten to know our state laws, met the governor and sat in the legislative chambers debating bills—I feel like I’m a much more active and informed citizen in Washington than I ever was in California.
I think you can also grow a lot as a person by participating in Youth and Government. I’ve gotten to see friends from my high school start Youth and Government because their friends were doing it, or because they heard that it was fun, and then come back the next year because they’ve become interested in the political issues we discuss in their own right. The program has made me a more confident leader and public speaker, broadened my horizons, and been one of the defining experiences of my high school years.
2007-08 Youth Governor
Erik Ashida
In 1965, Lyndon Johnson told the graduating class of Howard University that
it is the glorious opportunity of this generation to end the one huge wrong of the American Nation and, in so doing, to find America for ourselves, with the same immense thrill of discovery which gripped those who first began to realize that here, at last, was a home for freedom…
These words are still true a generation later, and this spirit of having young people discover what our country and its institutions mean to them and how they can contribute to them continues in the Youth and Government program. It gives us unparalleled access to the institutions of our state government, and then gives us the freedom to learn about them and make them our own.
I started Youth and Government my freshman year. I had just moved to Seattle and I was getting to know a new school and a new state. Because of Youth and Government—because I’ve made friends from across the state, gotten to know our state laws, met the governor and sat in the legislative chambers debating bills—I feel like I’m a much more active and informed citizen in Washington than I ever was in California.
I think you can also grow a lot as a person by participating in Youth and Government. I’ve gotten to see friends from my high school start Youth and Government because their friends were doing it, or because they heard that it was fun, and then come back the next year because they’ve become interested in the political issues we discuss in their own right. The program has made me a more confident leader and public speaker, broadened my horizons, and been one of the defining experiences of my high school years.
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