KYA Journal

Volume I Issue IV November 23, 2015

By Kyle Rubin & Jackson Stahl

The Kentucky Youth Assembly has had an astounding history ever since its inaugural year in 1853 when it was first brought to Louisville for adults looking to pursue politics and representation. Eventually, the club became associated with young adults in 1936 in New Jersey and introduced to Kentucky a decade later and named High Y.

As the years passed, the organization gained more and more recognition as the attendance peaked in the 1950s, a time when the youth were more eager to represent them-selves and their towns. In an interview with Derek Summer-ville, Advocacy and Development Director of KY YMCA Youth Association, the total attendance for the youth government program was at a high at nearly 50,000 delegates nation-wide, but has slightly plum-meted to around 39,000 this year.

The attendance has always been unstable (up and down) since around the 1960s. At-tendance is always crucial to the conference, yet the main concern is for each person to represent their school, town, Kentucky residents, and of course themselves said Sum-merville.

Despite the decrease in delegates over the years, the main concept of KYA has always stayed the same and will always be the same in the future; utilize technology in a critical thinking way, always seek diversity and represen-tation through conference attendance, and grow the pro-gram in order to give the youth of Kentucky the opportunity to present their ideas and feelings on controversial topics that may or may not benefit society.

The first point being introduced is how technology/social

media can affect KYA in the future and how it is currently being utilized. The main use of social media by KYA is through their own Instagram account, a popular app used to share pictures with followers. The Instagram account has already topped over 4,000 followers, and is grow- ing rapidly as the years go on. In fact, the 4,000+ followers is the most by any youth gov- ernment organi-zation ran-account in the world. They also have a Twitter and Facebook account which are also getting increasingly popular.

Its honestly very surprising but also amazing that the KY YMCA is currently the largest Instagram account in the world for youth government programs, Summerville continued, it gives the kids an opportunity to share their experiences with others through videos and pictures---its simply amazing! Not only is KYA getting more advanced through social media, but also through public websites and the creation of online brochures to spread awareness. In a time when technolo-gy was not near as complex and helpful as it is today, KYA

was not as able to market and promote like it can now through these different forms of social media and public websites. The future is very bright for using technology and especially so-cial media in KYA in the years to come.

To the surprise of many, KYA has the largest youth government participation in the entire coun-try! Using seven conferences, KYA has an average in the seven-thou-sand to eight-thousand range of students attending each year. This is the largest per capita, even more than the New York and Cal-ifornia conferences. To help pro-mote their attendance rates, each region of Kentucky has an advisor go to schools to talk to admin-istrators about pushing youth government into their schools.

Students can have six different options of roles to play [Cont. On Page Two]

in KYA conferences including media corps, judicial, lobby-ists, legislative, premiere, and congressional. Although the

Why the Y?

attendance rate is currently at its average, KYA along with their participants are working to spread awareness and its locations not only Kentucky, but youth governments around the United States.

The KYA organization has always had short and long-term goals set up for their youth government programs. According to Summerville, diversity and representation for all of the youth of Kentucky has always been a long-term goal as well as expanding youth government opportunities to all 50 states (39 currently). More goals include a rise in attendance to a percent near the rate in the 50s, the possibility of summer camps to help the students contain their information learned before, and to close the achievement gaps of any other goal. Summerville said, There have always been key goals in this program since I first joined the organization, but I think that the main goal is to give people who dont have the opportu-nities to represent themselves a chance to stand up for what they believe in.

The main ideas of KYA, utilizing technology in a critical thinking way, always seeking diversity and representation through conference attendance, and growing the program in order to give the youth of Kentucky the opportunity to pres-ent their ideas, will be applied today and even decades from today. Summerville described his favorite thing to see at the conference is the students putting in maximum effort and to still enjoy themselves throughout the experience with stu-dents not just from their school, but also their peers through-out the rest of Kentucky.

Make this conference what you want it to be. Some will do the bare minimum and have loads of fun (which is truly the ultimate goal of KYA) and some will be overwhelmed with cramming so much into their experience while still enjoying it, and thats how you do it right, Summerville said.

By Emily Slone

KYA isnt just a conference, its a place where you find your voice and try new things. Many of the students who attend KYA will tell you that before attending the conference they were scared to branch out and speak in front of a crowd, but now, after seeing how much of a family this is, they feel safe and are not scared to try new things. Of course, it isnt magical. You dont just walk through the conference doors and automatically find your voice, and become confident, but with the encouragement of all the Y staff and KYA veterans, you finally develop the courage to express yourself, come out of your shell, and make your opinions heard.

KYA: Changing Students For the Better

By: Madison Cunningham

As the bill authors start their beginning speech tensions are risen. Bill num-ber 9 is an act to permit in-dependents to vote in prima-ry elections. Their first words are I cant vote. No I dont mean because of my age, or Im a felon or something. No I cant vote even when I turn 18 simply because Im an in-dependent. The goal of this bill is to allow independent registered voters to have a chance to vote in Kentuckys Primary Elections.

Many people oppose this bill because it goes against what they believe in as a republican or democrat. But there were also good com-

Bill #P9ments about this bill. Such as, encourage individual-ize people to vote on their opinions and without this, part of democracy loses their voice. The bill authors came up with this bill because they think it is a important issue and that the democrats are overpow-ering in the primary voting and they are overpowering the government. Bill number 9 ended up being passed in House and they did not have to go through the Senate process. They met with the Governor and she her likeing of the bill.

Well good job authors and good luck! What are your opinions on this bill? Do you favor it or oppose it?

By Abbi Hunter

As we come midway in our KYA experience we famil-iarize ourselves with the im-mense quantity of students. Us multitudes introduce one another, discuss controver-sial topics, and reside with our schools. The schools magnitudes vary greatly. This brings up the question, does the population of other schools, compared to yours, impact your KYA experience?

Through questioning I assimilated a few opinions.

Population Matters

The highest opinion was that population did not impact their KYA experience. Al-though it may be intimidating to speak in front of complete strangers, it did not wavier their confidence in speaking their opinion. These students who held this opin-

ion truly embraced the KYA concept of judgment free opinions. The second opinion

I retained is that population did impact their KYA experi-ence. While schools such as St.X and South Oldham have

more than 60 students, schools like Greenup and Somerset Christian have

less than 20. This effects them in the

sense of school spirit and comfortability in the

crowd of strangers. Not ev-eryone is as ebulliently social as the average KYA attendee and their school population might be a factor.

The inequality of students in schools at KYA is inevi-table due to school systems and the population in an area. However, the confi-dence of our fellow KYA stu-dents should be considered of great importance. If you see a student alone, rather they are from a large school or not, always befriend them. Help them built the confi-dence they need to experi-ence KYA fully and built the confidence they will carry through life.

By Emily Bragg

Today, I want to bring to your at-tention to Bill #30 (An act to require up-to-date Braille and Large Print Menus in the State of Kentucky). This bill is requires all restaurants to keep one up to date menu, with any changes to the actual menu, in Braille and large print, so that they can actually read the menu for themselves. Restaurants that dont have these menus isolate 138,000 Kentucki-ans from ordering. The bill author herself, Abby Raines, is visually impaired. She is forced to carry a magnifier glass with her in school to read very small fonts that teachers give students. Our English teacher is nice enough to make larger print for her, but restaurant do not always carry these menus. Abby believes, this is

the first stop to accessibility for all Kentuckians, for all individuals. Many other people seem to agree with Abby. Charlie Tran from CAL agreed when I asked for his opinion of this bill and left

me with this statement, It will expand the horizon for many Kentuckians to participate in ordering off a menu. Of course not everyone saw this bill as a need for Kentucky. Allie Perkins and

Hannah Schuette told me their concerns about this bill: restaurant should not be forced to carry them, they should not be fined for not carrying a menus either, and there is no good away to

enforce this unless someone went to every single restaurant to check. These con views have very good points and should be taken into account. My personal view is that this bill is needed in kentucky. My own grandmother is starting to go blind and no longer can enjoy reading small print books. My mother has to read the menu to her every time we go out or order for her. If the font was bigger she would be able to read it since it is anything small in print she is

unable to read. Please take every view into account like how our speaker this morning, Dean Schamore, talked about how we need to listen with an open mind about other peoples views.

Bill #30

By Kody Nalley

The Crowne Plazas lobby has welcomed well over 20,000 student delegates in the last twenty years from all over the Com-monwealth. These student advocates come from a variety of backgrounds and lifestyles, but no one knows that better than we do. We are here for a reason; to share with others what our views are. I really love talking, that is really my big thing. It is fun for me to be able to get up and voice my opinion. Michael Shaffer, from Greenwood High School, stated You get people from not only different schools and different parts of Kentucky, but also everyone has these different opinions and [they] are conflicting with one another. People are working it out and [they] get to explain their sides, opinions which many people do not often hear.

All of these views mix together to form what many would consider to be a melting pot, which according to Merriam-Web-ster is a place where different peoples, styles, theories, etc., are mixed together to gradually create one community. All these opinions coming together is what makes more of a melting pot rather than the traditional definition, said Shaffer.

Emma Bellomy, from Henry Clay High School, describes KYA as, A bunch of students who want to be more active in their community and want to have a voice. [Also] to have a place to feel safe and encouraged to have that voice heard. Even if this is your first KYA I hope by now that you can tell we are a #familY, a family that cares and if you do not realize this let someone

The Melting Pot of Kentucky Youth:Creating a Community

Go For It!Bluegrass

January1618, 2016Camp Loucon

know because we have failed. At KYA we might not agree with a proposal, but we respect that proposal. We all come together to solve problems, said Braeden Salazar, from Saint Xavier High School. The authors have to fight their nerves to share what they think will better our Com-monwealth. I mean that is why we are all here, we all have the same goal; to fix the deficien-cies and help Kentucky be the great state we all have grown to know and love.