By: Tyler Ramos Cruz
Three media delegates; Jerson Torres, Jazmin Ramos and Jazzy Ramos. traveled around the Madison Capitol to interview six different YIG assistants in 3 different sections of the program. The three different programs being; Branch Delegation Directors, State Advisors, and Volunteers. Each category of people had different types of questions. All three sections had the same introduction questions; who are you? (this includes their name, and position). What do you do here? And what got you here? The questions vary on how important and big the category is. For example, state advisors have a more detailed question, asking; what previous experiences have you had that made you qualify to be a state advisor for Youth In Government. Branch Del. Directors have two questions. These include, What do you like most about your job here? And what’s a unique part of your job? Lastly, for the volunteers of YIG we asked two questions not including the introduction questions. These questions include, What is the reason why you signed up to be a volunteer? And what’s your experience so far as a volunteer? After the three came up with those questions, they went forward and interviewed six people; Ann Fisher, Ben Gunderson, Jack Conroy, Sahara Murray, Jolene Gross, and Ciara Featherly.
Jazmin Ramos interviewed two of the Youth In Government Volunteers, Featherly and Conroy. The first person she interviewed was Featherly. When asking the questions listed in the introduction, Featherly replied to all questions with. “..I’m a volunteer or a resource advisor, my name is Ciara Featherly…i’m just going around and making sure you guys are doing well, if you have any questions, you can come to me. I’m also a communication student so all this media is what I do for a living, if you have any questions I’m here…So my best friend, Molly, is a specialist working in the leadership room and she’s like’ I’m going to this thing and I’m going to need extra volunteers.’So me and one of my sorority sisters decided to come help and volunteer…I’m really liking it..I’ve never actually been to the Capitol before so this is a really cool experience to be here and just watch you guys learn about media, and yeah, i’m having a great time!”
The next volunteer to be interviewed was Conroy. Since they are both in the same section, the questions were alike. Jazmin went along to interview him. Conroy responded with; “my name is Jack Conroy and I am an advisor for the Green Bay delegation … .I’m here to just make sure things run smoothly. Really, everything is up to the young people, all the delegates we have, all of our assembly members, our senate members, members of the supreme court and media. All of you are the people who are actually running things right now. I am here just to see all the work the young people have been doing within youth outreach… I go to our lady of the lourdes on Wednesday afternoon to help out there with the Youth In Government program and then I work with our young people on Tuesday nights, as well. So it’s really cool seeing them get to cash in on all the hard work they’ve done this year…I signed up to be a volunteer, again, just for all the great work we’ve been doing, the great work the young people have been doing. We need adults just to make this weekend happen because parents need adults to feel safe when sending their kids to a new city so I’m just here to be that safe person… My experience so far has been great so far as a volunteer. I loved interacting a lot with the media people because they have a little bit more time to talk to me about what they are doing as they’re not doing open assembly. Assembly has been fun but my favorite has been leadership corp. I love seeing the seventh graders get to work.”
The next two people were interviewed by Jerson Torres. The two people interviewed are a part of The Branch Delegation Directors, who are known as Ben Gunderson and Ann Fisher. Torres moved on to interview Gunderson. Gunderson replied to all questions asked in the beginning paragraph. “My name is Ben Gunderson, I’m the delegation director for the Green Bay delegation, I’m the media specialist this year…At this conference I am helping to support the chart of work that our three amazing leaders in media have come up with. As well as making sure that everybody in the Green Bay del. is safe and taken care of and prepared adequately…Some really amazing young people taking big risks and saying yes to an opportunity they didn’t really understand which was amazing. I think also there’s a lot of passion that goes into government work that goes into a field that’s very exciting.” ‘Dare I say sexy’ Gunderson said while joking around. “But like it is super important, we’re all sitting around in dressed clothes talking about bills like it’s not very sexy.” He continues to say. “But! It’s important, super important work and this is like how our country functions so like, i think it’s important to find passion in boring things like this is how the donuts are made…Just getting to see you guys take a new opportunities to find new skills in talents that you didn’t know you had…I think the most…I like to get to know the young people from across the different dels. In Youth In Government. For example Aiden is an amazing young man that I have now known for two years. But! I wouldn’t know Aiden if I hadn’t come to Youth In Government, we would never have met and he’s awesome…You guys are also awesome but like I love that we get to meet new people from across the state. I also think it’s also cool to see young people grow up like watching you guys go to 6th, 7th graders all the way to like now in your early highschool. By the time you are juniors and seniors you guys are going to be totally different people than you were in 7th grade and it’s really fun to watch you change and find yourselves. I get a lot out of that.”
The next person Torres was to interview was Fisher. She answered the questions with “My name is Ann Fisher and I’m the Fox Cities del. Director and the statewide program director… so I am helping the executive level delegates with bill routing and making sure the legislative docket stays up to date and I also did a lot of prep with program planning for the conference…So I was actually in Youth In government when I was in high school and then I taught for a few years and then when I was looking for another job there was an advisors position available in the Fox Cities and I thought it would be fun to do Youth In Government again as an adult…Connecting with students…I would say a unique thing about my job is that I do not have set hours that I just kind of work when I need to and there’s times when I work a full day like twelves hours.”
The last two interviews were taken by Jazzy Ramos. She interviewed Jolene Gross and Sahara Murray. These two were both State advisors. The first to be interviewed was Gross who responded to next questions with; “I’m Jolene Gross, I am a state advisor and government director. This is my first year in this role and I’ve been a Local Del. Director for the last ten years and then I was very excited for the new challenge…I oversee all the logistics for the program so making sure everything is working in media and we got all the supplies you needed, same with the supreme court and all the other program areas and just making sure we are here that you can have a successful program…I think my love for working with teens is what got me here today, I enjoy all your different personalities and passion for the different things we do in this courtroom and I think it’s very rewarding…Like I said I led the local Fox City Del. for the last ten years. We’ve been the largest del. for the last nine, which is exciting. I was looking to grow and improve the program, taking what I learned at the local level and bringing it to the statewide level so that we can continue to grow first for the statewide programs.”
The last person Jazzy interviewed was Sahara Murray. She responded to the questions with; “my name is Sahra Murray and I am a state office assistant for Jolane…Im mostly running around and helping in any area that needs help, printing things off, making sure everyone has everything they need to be successful for the day…I’ve been working for the YMCA for almost four years now and school age and I was asked last year to come and help out and I’ve been here since…I guess just always being there to help with what needs to be done, the tasks that are asked of me.”
Each and everyone of the people that they have interviewed continue to strive and support the Youth In Government program. They continue to work on more things to help the program run smoothly each year. There are many more people who work in the same positions that those who have been listed in. Youth In Government will continue to grow and strive together as one.