Pictured Left to Right
Front Row: Peyton Hunt, Rashid Ibrahim, Kylie Hickoff, Aidan Torres, Gabriella Garisto, Zoe Handwerk
Middle Row: Cooper Johnson, Derick Sandstrom, Mason Gratkowski, Madison Yohe, Aaron Nordai, Layla Wall, Kylee Baumbach
Back Row: Dravin Murti, Aaliyah Allensworth, Joseph Korsak, Camillo Gasper, Cassidy Pomraning, Hannah Hottenstein
The MAHS Youth and Government (YAG) Club participated in the annual 2023 Model Government Convention at the State Capitol. The high school students were among several delegations from all across the state who took over the Capitol, debating bills they have written in the Senate and House chambers, and taking on the role of state senators and representatives. The club had several delegates involved in the Press Corps who learned about everything from media, journalism, and photography/videography. Here are the highlights of some of their accomplishments:
- Madison Yohe and Aaliyah Allensworth were selected to serve alongside our Youth Governor as a member of her administration. Maddie served as Senate Liaison and Aaliyah served as Press Secretary, giving several briefings to the press regarding a Mock Crisis Scenario that the organization implemented this year.
- Cassidy Pomraning wrote a bill on increasing the amount of money that an individual is paid for serving jury duty in Pennsylvania. Cassidy’s bill passed committee, the House, and Senate and was signed into “YAG Law” by the Youth Governor. Cassidy and the secondary sponsor of her bill, Camillo Gasper, were recognized at the bill signing ceremony.
- Zoe Handwerk wrote a bill on providing free lunches to all students from Kindergarten through 12th grade. Zoe’s bill also passed committee, House, and Senate and was signed by the Youth Governor. Her secondary sponsor was Kylie Hickoff. Zoe was also selected to attend the Conference of National Affairs (CONA) in North Carolina this summer. She was one of the top 25 students (out of the 500+ that attended the conference) to be selected - and this was her first year in YAG! Both Rashid Ibrahim and Joe Korsak were selected as alternates for CONA.
- Aidan Torres, Kylie Hickoff, Derick Sandstrom, Dravin Murti, Rashid Ibrahim, and Joe Korsak all had their bills pass committee.
- Gabriella Garisto and Hannah Hottenstein had their photos published in The Chronicle – the YAG newspaper.
- Peyton Hunt and Layla Wall were famous on the YAG social media pages with their interviews of other delegates and their “Bills for Dummies” videos that were extremely helpful to new YAG delegates to understand the program.