The Pine Bush High School Youth in Government members attended the annual steering convention at Newburgh High School on Thursday, Nov. 21. Pine Bush had 27 students attend.
This convention is a mock election for local, state and national offices. Sixteen Pine Bush students ran for public office, with two winners emerging from the convention! Scarlett Santiago, a new student to the district, was elected district attorney, and Jacob Shuh was elected congressperson A.
The students that ran for positions were prepped ahead of time by receiving a packet of the 11 positions available, explaining the role and job of that position.
“Many of our students picked a position that is something they are interested in doing in the future, like law and public outreach,” said Charlene Webster, the club’s advisor.
Both Scarlett and Jacob said they enjoyed the convention. Jacob said he believes the key to his win was a good speech and an energetic presentation. Scarlett agreed. She said her speech was very genuine and personal.
“The other candidates talked about things in the eyes of the law,” she said. “They knew the law but they didn’t get personal with the audience.”
In their after school meetings, Mrs. Webster aided all of the students in speech writing and how to tie their position to their ambitions and qualifications. They were to write a two-minute speech emphasizing their qualities and why they wanted to run for that particular position. They presented to over 120 students in their designated parties. The People’s and Citizen’s Parties are used to divide up the large number of students that attend the conventions to two separate locations and have no political party affiliations.
The following students attended the convention. The asterisk represents the students that ran for a position.
- Emilia Cruz*
- Sophia Huang*
- Khadijah Owens*
- Kayla DeWinter*
- Lydia Luksha*
- Xuedan Lin
- Madeline Doyle
- Lillian Gerspach
- Olivia Green
- Ronny Mazza
- Rachel Vinella
- Kyle O’Brien*
- Jacob Shuh*
- Liam Blackwell*
- William Chen
- Peyton Villalon
- Christopher Reyes*
- Sophia Aquino*
- Chloe Rosa*
- Lanna Burtchell
- Joseph Dickman*
- Arianna Birch*
- Scarlett Santiago*
- Angelina Gellman*
- Anderson Canales
- Michaela Andrikut*
- Adam Dillon
“Many of the candidates were ninth graders and I am so proud that they took the initiative to represent our school knowing this was their first time ever doing something like this,” said Mrs. Webster. “They spoke well and had wonderful speeches. They truly put their heart and soul into the task at hand. I was so proud of the whole group and their commitment to Youth in Government – I was overwhelmed with emotion knowing our future will be in good hands and I can’t wait to see what the future holds for these young leaders!”