How often is a teen lucky enough to wake up one morning and think “I’m going to see the White House today?” If you’re thinking not many, you would be correct. However, thanks to the San Benito County 4-H program, three local teen 4-H’ers had the privilege to experience the trip of a lifetime in the last week of June.
4-H offers local youth amazing opportunities such as raising livestock and traveling to multiple leadership conferences. But the biggest, most respected gathering of 4-H’ers is in Baltimore, Md. at the 4-H Citizenship Washington Focus Conference. This conference has been held for more than 50 years and hosted more than 300 delegates from all over the United States.
Jessica Ward, Kelly McCullough and I, Erica Leung, were anxious to learn more about our nation’s history and meet new people. We went with three other counties: Napa, Nevada and Santa Barbara, to make up the California delegation. All of us had the objectives of strengthening our communication, leadership and other citizenship skills on a national level. Additionally, we hoped to create action plans to address important issues in our communities. The jam-packed week consisted of workshops teaching the youth how to write a congressional bill for debate, as it is done in the Senate, tours of all the national monuments in D.C. and a visit to the Capitol building.
For the congressional bill-writing process, the entire delegation of teens was split into four groups. These groups discussed the real issues of alternative fuel vehicles, federal crop and farmer protection programs, federal minimum wage and college athlete monetary compensation. Throughout the week, the groups met and wrote their bill to be presented at a 4-H congressional session. As a delegate, the participation of debating on these real life concerns was extraordinary. I felt like I was actually in Congress when I got to vote on the four topics.
One of the most memorable activities of the week was Capitol Hill day. This opportunity allowed the entire 4-H delegation to travel to the Capitol Building and see what life was like for many of the working legislators. Some delegations were even fortunate enough to meet with their local congressman or woman and get a personal tour of the Capitol by an intern. San Benito delegates had the privilege of meeting Congressman Sam Farr in his office.
He explained how he hoped to have more attention put toward California’s water crisis. After speaking with Farr, we gathered with the rest of our state and created a plan to help our water crisis. As teens, we came to the conclusion that we can encourage others to reduce their usage of water during the drought. But the problem will only truly be resolved when it begins to rain again.
“Meeting with Sam Farr was great and I really felt at home and comfortable talking to him,” Ward said.
From the emotion of visiting the Iwo Jima monument to debating topics at the congressional session, the San Benito delegates experienced history in way that will never be forgotten.
“One thing that stood out to me was how close everyone became after only a couple of days together,” McCullough said.
Needless to say, we encourage any teen in 4-H or another organization to take the chance to go to Washington D.C if they can, because it will be one of the best trips one will ever take.
