Youth and Government 2016

Each spring, the YMCA sponsors New Hampshire Youth and Government, a mock government experience for high school students from across the state.  For three days, the students get complete access to the State House, the Legislative Office Building, and the Supreme Court as they debate bills written by their fellow students.  This is the 68th year of New Hampshire Youth and Government and Trinity has had a delegation for about 10 years.  I have had the honor of being the advisor for the past 8 years and look forward to these three days every year.

The Trinity delegation

The first day, called the Pre-Legislative session, took place on March 19.  This was more of an organizational day when the students elect the officers (governor, speaker, Senate president, editor of the newspaper, and chief justice) and learn about their roles.  One of our students, Kate Barker '16, was picked to the editor of the newspaper, a first for Trinity.  Another student, Augustine Duffy '17, is serving as a committee chair in the House of Representatives.  We have 20 students in all from Trinity taking part this year (there are 260 overall from across the state).

We came back to the State House yesterday for the first of the final two days.  The day consisted of committee work and debates on the floors of the House and Senate.  It was a marathon day going from 10am-8:30pm with day two today from 9am-4pm.  This is a wonderful experience for all the students and an opportunity to learn the in and outs of government and politics.  They also got to hear remarks from Gov. Maggie Hassan yesterday afternoon.

I for one also enjoy spending time with my counterparts from the public schools, many from the North country.  While the students are in their chambers, the teachers hang out in the cloak rooms or in the galleries.  It's a lot of fun to swap war stories and to hear about their schools.  One teacher, from a very northern school, is only one of two social studies teachers in the whole school (which is 6-12) and the total population of the school is 150.  My goal for next year is to try and get the other Catholic schools in the state to participate.  Trinity is the only private school here and the only school from our area, expect for Nashua North and Campbell in Litchfield.