| White Plains YMCA Youth & Government Students at the State Conference! Over the weekend the YMCA of Central & Northern Westchester took its group of White Plains students to the New York State YMCA Youth & Government State Conference. The 32 White Plains students were among the 250 total high school students to participate in the first in-person conference since 2019. All year long the Youth & Government (YAG) teens have met weekly at the Y to learn about the different branches of government and work to prepare for this conference. Our White Plains YAG teens are separated into seven Legislative bill groups, three Judicial attorney teams, and have four teens representing us as a part of the press corps to document the entire weekend. Our YAG teens had a strong showing at the conference having six out of seven of our bills pass in both mock representative houses. Two of these bills passed unanimously. The bill which proposed to mandate all public health employees report suspected elder abuse won Outstanding Bill. One of our seniors Willa Einstein took home Outstanding Debater for her outstanding contributions to the debate in her chamber. Two of our three attorney teams won their cases defending their respective arguments. We also had two teens serving as supreme court justices preceding overall cases for the weekend. Lastly, our current presiding club President, senior Celia Holden, got the opportunity to hand over her state-held cabinet position to junior Maya Reiken as the Deputy Pro Tempore of Senate Freedom for the 2022-2023 school year. |
Celie Holden, Jacob Lee, Matthew Borella, and Phillip Mann brought to the floor their bill that went on to pass unanimously and win outstanding bill.
Attorney Lance Anthony (seen standing) arguing his winning case.