Our guest writer, Vivienne Garner, is an incoming sophomore and long time participant in Youth and Government. She sits down to discuss her experience at CONA and the impact Youth and Government has been for her.

"I first joined Youth and Government when I was in sixth grade, and the program has completely changed my life. Since joining, I have learned several life skills such as public speaking, drafting speeches, research, and most importantly, time management. This will be my sixth year in the program and every year I learn something new.

I love this program because of the versatility. Over the years, I have done bills on topics ranging from public safety, to prison reform, to fixing the drug rehabilitation system. Almost any topic can be used in this program, and you have a lot of fun while doing it. The best thing about this program is the people that you meet. More so on the high school level, you will meet people with political views that are one-hundred percent different from your own. This is significant because youth and government gives you the opportunity to learn how to actually work with people who have differing views. The program shows you, from an early age, how people with different opinions can collaborate to achieve similar goals.

This year, I had the amazing opportunity to attend the YMCA Conference On National Affairs and the week I spent there changed my life, again. The week that I spent on the mountain exposed me to people from different states who had different ways of thinking that stemmed from their different backgrounds. CONA gave me the chance to meet and work with amazing people that I would have never met if not for this conference."

Written by: Vivienne Garner