Youth and Government (Y&G) is a Model Legislature and Court program that I am so honored to be a part of! I was previously the secretary and then chaplin of the South Bay, San Diego Super Cluster (SDSC) delegation. In my final year of Y&G, I served as the delegation vice president. I led the South Bay along with our wonderful president, Sofia Reyes, through weekly meetings and our three yearly conferences! This year, we were honored with being recognized as delegation of distinction. I also
Youth and Government meets on a weekly basis, and begins with the school year in September. We brainstorm interesting and debatable topics that we can bring to the table, and those ideas turn into bills. Once we have our bills, we assign members to write speeches either for or against them, and then practice them until we finally present on Bill hearing night.
Our Bill Hearing Nights are more than just reading some speeches to our parents. For many years, we have presented in the Chula Vista City Council Chambers to a panel of esteemed guests who are either representatives in the Chula Vista City Council, or even working in the State Capital! We have received awards from: Greg Cox of the San Diego Board of Supervisors, California Senator Ben Hueso, Chula Vista Mayor Mary Salas, and Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez.
Bill writing is only a fraction of what we do in Y&G. We have 3 conferences that we go to every year. These are the real Youth and Government events. At these conferences, we stay for 3-6 days with all 3,000 delegates from all over California. The first two take place in Fresno, these are where we learn about different areas of the government and figure out what interests us. On our 6 day state capital trip, we actually get to take over these jobs and hold a mock government conference in the actual chambers used by the California legislature and court. During my three years in Y&G, I won "Best Delegate" for mock bench trial in 2017, was appointed Statewide Deputy Superintendent of Public Instruction in 2018, and served as Director of Policy for my political party in 2019.
Here are some cute photos of us my senior year!
Below are some of my speeches and work from the program.