Underclassmen Legislature - An Experience to Remember

 

Underclassmen Legislature - An Experience to Remember

By Logan Rowland - YMCA Arlington - Washington-Lee

The Underclassmen Legislature is a place of growth. It is where one comes to learn and to grow. It is the springboard for successful Senators and Delegates.

According to the MGA Student Guide, the purpose of the Underclassmen Legislature is for the students to learn “the roles of real legislators and lobbyists” (2018). It holds the purpose of creating a simulation in which underclassmen can learn how to act when they become Bill Patrons themselves in future years.

Rachel Hall started her first year of Model General Assembly in the Underclassmen Legislature. She went on to serve as a Senator for the remaining three years of her high school career. Now a college staff member, she says that she gained plenty of experience from her time in the Legislature. She says that she learned “how to take an idea of a problem and recognize whether it was the government’s responsibility to fix that problem or not” and how to develop that idea into a bill to solve that problem.

Hall is a strong supporter of the work done in the Underclassman Legislature.  She says that she is excited to be a college staffer for the Underclassmen Legislature because she can “have the same sort of impact” that she experienced in her time as a freshman.

 On Friday, the Legislature will hold bill writing workshops, while also touring the Capitol and Supreme Court.

References:

“MGA Student Guide 2018-2019.” Virginia YMCA, 2018