BY JESSICA STEELEY
Clarkston News Staff Writer

Writing bills, debating issues, voting on laws – Clarkston’s Youth in Government Club experienced them all at the YMCA Michigan Youth in Government Conference in Lansing last month.
“It was great. We went up to Lansing and we wrote bills,” Senior Alexander Gavulic said.  “We would get together and basically do a mock version of the Michigan State Legislature, so, we would pass bills in the house or the senate and debate them and then there would be a youth governor who would sign or veto them.”
Everyone who participated in the legislative process wrote a bill to be debated by participants, which included over 1,100 students from around Michigan.
“You learn exactly how our legislative system works, so it’s just like a really good learning tool,” said senior Seth Stump. “It’s kind of like a step up from just classroom learning.”
Of the bills Clarkston students wrote, one was signed by the youth governor. Senior Allison Clark’s bill to allow Michigan citizens who turn 18 in a presidential election year to vote in the election and the primaries was passed. If the bill were real, it would allow you to vote even if you turn 18 after the election. Clark wrote it because she missed last year’s election by five days.
The other students bills focused on electoral college reform, encouraging the use of renewable energy, outlawing synthetic pesticides and creating areas for urban farming.
Stump said several bills were debated and some caused heated debates, such as the ones involving transgender bathroom rights, legalization of marijuana and environmental issues.
“I realized how fun it was and how interesting it was to go and debate real world issues,” Stump said. “See different opinions from around the state and just go through the mock legislation process.” “Another really cool thing about it is that we actually got to use the state capital building,” Gavulic said. “We got to use the real house and senate chambers in Lansing.”
Though fun, the mock legislation process also took its toll on the students.
“It is [frustrating] to debate bills and hear opinions that you don’t like or aren’t true,” said senior Mary Mckillop.
Aside from the legislative process, the conference also had a National Issues Forum, which junior Jaxson Wirth took part in.
“You take a national policy issue and then debate it, it’s more debate intensive, but less writing intensive and it applies on the national level,” Wirth said. “I’d say that my debate skills vastly improved.”
Wirth also applied to attend the Youth Conference on National Affairs, the national version of the conference in North Carolina.
Of the seven Clarkston students that attended, about half want to pursue political science in college.
“I learned essentially what I would like to do as a career,” Gavulic said. “I fully intend to eventually run for some government position.”
The conference is the main event for the club. In their meetings, Clarkston teacher Charles Claus taught about writing bills, parliamentary procedure and the legislation process. Clarkston students David Carpenter and Sean Martin also attended the conference.