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YMCA New Jersey Youth and Government The New Jersey YAG Mag LYNN SHAPIRO VISITS CONFERENCE
doubled in size and has grown to include many more aspects. Aside from the Press Corps, all the specialized committees were founded after Shapiro retired. Even Press Corps grew tremendously since Shapiro’s tenure. The original Press Corps did all their work by hand and only created a single newsletter at the end of conference. Initially, the Press Corps was m ore area for younger delegates to get acclimated to conference then move on in later years to the legislature. “Now you have got kids who are genuinely interested in Press Corps. It’s now a committee that delegates love rather than just a transition area,” said Shapiro.
By Shiva Darshan, Montgomery Delegation New Jersey Youth and Government is the second oldest YAG in the country. Through its seventy-‐seven year history, NJ YAG has been lead by a series of dedicated program directors. Even after they retire, many of these program directors continue to be an integral part of YAG. Lynn Shapiro is one these former directors and continues to help create YAG through her role as a trustee. She started at YAG as delegate in 1972. YAG was radically different from what it is today. “We only had one chamber, one house and one senate. We didn’t have computers. All the research was done in the library,” Shapiro said. After she left, she continued to stay involved as alumni staff and ultimately became the program director.
During her tenure as program director, YAG grew greatly and as she spearheaded the creation of the Press Corps. Despite how far YAG went during her tenure, Shapiro is still surprised at how much YAG grew since she retired. The conference has more than During Shapiro’s tenure as director, YAG was limited to pre-‐legislative session and conference. She is happy to see that the YAG experience has grown through the Days of Service, Service Retreat, and programs such as Summer International Leadership Program. As a trustee, she does a lot of work with alum and through this work she has noticed that technology has allowed the alumni network to stay in contact and be a lot closer than in previous years.
She is glad to see that YAG still allows delegates to find and engage with like mind people. She remembered that she found her interest in politics through YAG and how that ultimately led to her pursuing a career in campaign finance. She also spoke about many of delegates from her generation who reach the upper echelons of their individual fields, both politics and other fields. When looking to the future, Shapiro says she is excited to see how far this generation will go. In regards to YAG, she says she is unsure in which direction it will go in the next ten or fifteen years, but is confident that YAG’s dedicated core of officers, staff, and delegates will lead it in the right direction.
In this issue… Environmental Awareness…2 Q&A on V accination……….…2 Inside Scoop on Bean………..3 “Why I joined the ERC..…....4 Youth Governor Nick Pellitta Lt. Governor Justin Bean Editor-‐in-‐Chief Sonay Barazesh Deputy Editor-‐in-‐Chief Ezra Lee YMCA New Jersey Youth and Government April 24, 2015 1
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Page 2 ENVIRONMENTAL QUESTION & AWARENESS ANSWER ON A VACCINATION BILL By Samantha Delegation Del Vecchio’s interview with past Governor Billy Daly and YAG’s interest in environmental issues By Olivia Delegation
Del Vecchio, Cranford This past Wednesday, April 22, 2015, was lit in shades of green for Earth Day. On this day, the entire community promotes substantial living, advocates for recycling, and warns others of the dangers of pollution and smog. Extremists often heed that in a few generations our planet will be virtually uninhabitable. However bleak this sounds, it may be true. Our lack of concern for our planet, our home, destroys any chance at a healthy environment. Despite all this negativity, Youth and Government delegates remain optimistic. Our voice and our actions influence our peers. Former Youth Governor and current Environmental Studies major Billy Daly contests that environmental awareness is integrated not only in our everyday lives, but throughout conference. “Our bills, while centered on politics and the economy,” he continues, “also tie in environmental issues.” Bills regarding water filtration, honeybees and, incentivized recycling prove that not only we are m otivated to improve the health of our planet; we are active in doing so. Our mission continues outside of conference. With the expanded days of service, delegates now volunteer at outside, literally dirtying the skin underneath their fingernails and callusing their hands. By digging trenches to redirect water flow and clearing the landscape of debris or leaves, delegates demonstrate a want to give back to the community. And in doing so, influence their community to treat our planet with love and gentle care. Billy Daly passionately articulates that by taking initiative to better our community we are acting as “the stewards’ of tomorrow’s success” in the environmentalist movement. Earth Day motivates us to cultivate a healthier and greener community, but not just on an isolated Wednesday in April. Switching the plastic water bottle for the reusable one, switching off lights when leaving the room, and separating garbage from recyclables are simple yet effective ways in which we can continue Earth Day’s initiative. As Billy would say, “environmentalist awareness is not like a pair of glasses you can take on and off, we have to put it on every day”.
Todd, Middlesex Senior Sera Day from Middlesex Delegation has recently passed her bill through Cleveland Assembly and Senate. It now awaits the governor's approval to be signed into law. She seeks to regulate mandatory vaccinations for all students who enter private and public schools. In doing this she seeks to protect and ensure the safety of all students statewide. What was your bill about?
“In a nutshell my bill was about making vaccines mandatory for entry into public and private schools in New Jersey.” How did you feel when your bill passed committee?
“I was so excited, it just felt really good to know that m y hard work paid off. I actually wrote a research paper about it. It was so exciting.” Was your bill controversial?
“Not in committee, but I think it will be in chamber.” How did people seem to react to your bill?
“Positively in committee because I focused on the human rights aspect of safety for children.” Anything else you would like to add?
“Even though it was my first year it was a really memorable experience and it kind of makes me sad I can't do it again.”
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Page 3 THE INSIDE SCOOP ON LT. GOVERNOR JUSTIN BEAN By Stephen Boylan and Alex Eng, Hunterdon Central Delegation
Justin Bean, Hunterdon Central Delegation, is well-‐known as the capable right-‐hand man to Governor Nick Pellitta. As Lieutenant Governor for the 2015 session of NJ YAG, Bean gave multiple moving, powerful speeches that gave him a great deal of notoriety at the event. However, most do not know the real Justin Bean and what being an officer in the cabinet is truly like. Bean was kind enough to spare some of his time for an interview with the YAGMAG, and was able to shed some light on the past, the present, and the optimistic future of YAG. To start, Bean introduced his start at YAG and how it became one of his most passionate interests. “My most poignant memory at YAG was in my sophomore year, as a first year. I was yielded five seconds for a speech by a great speaker. I gave a complete speech with three points in five seconds and got a standing ovation from everyone. It was a great day.” certain unique role. “I’m also a utility player,” he said, “a member of every subcommittee. I’ve worked for legacy scholarship fundraising, as a YS liaison, helped organizing and collecting sites for Days of Service, and written YAGMag articles.” Truly, Bean’s work involves serving all the subcommittees and forming a good link between staff officers. This year, Bean has worked hard as part of the Cabinet, noting that their single greatest accomplishment of the year was holding the Junior Legislators’ session on Friday, April 24, in which middle school delegates held an impressively advanced and mature session. “It was inspiring, to say the least.” Bean is also personally proud of the food sale that was held at pre-‐leg conference on March 15, which both fed delegates and contributed to the legacy scholarship fund. “Joel Sirusas came up with the idea of selling food last year, but we put in a lot of planning and had more diverse food for this year’s pre-‐leg. We never ran out.” The program continued to inspire Bean as a delegate to the point where he became heavily interested in taking part in its future. “I was talking to Joel Sirusas, and he was talking about all the work that the officers were doing. I said, ‘Hey, I want to be a part of this.’” And as Lt. Gov., Bean has worked extensively with the cabinet and the officer corps to improve the program, satisfying one of his original goals for running for office: “Basically, I wanted to have an effect on people.” Bean’s time as Lt. Gov., however, is coming to a close. As with his fellow cabinet members, this will be his last conference as a high school student. The recently announced Governor-‐to-‐be Mahishan Gnanaseharan will be heading conference next year alongside his new cabinet. While Gnanaseharan has received a great deal of attention and coverage in the recent gubernatorial race, less recognition has been given to his incumbent cabinet members. Bean stated that the same trend has been observed in the past. “I think it just has to do with recognition. Legislative officers get to be in front of their committee and inspire them firsthand,” he said. “Cabinet is detached.”
To do so, Bean has assumed the responsibilities of direction, organization, managing people, and making sure the Corps as a whole is moving in the right direction. However, Bean noted that being Lt. Gov. has a Regarding this year’s election for the 2016 Youth Governor, Bean expressed his satisfaction with how the ambitious delegates ran. “I think this year was interesting because you had four officers running and two candidates from smaller delegations who weren’t as well known, but had fresh ideas.” He commented that social media played less of a role, while delegation visits were highly effective. “It was a great way to integrate delegations and bring them together.” Furthermore, Bean seems to be very excited for Gnanaseharan’s future as Governor. “I have complete faith in Mahishan and his lieutenant Ellie Smith, and the people who are geared up to take over next year and the year after. The next officer corps is looking just a primed to do just as much, if not more, [than its predecessor].”
On that note, Bean’s hopes for the future of the New Jersey Youth and Government program as a whole are highly optimistic. Among other things, Bean is interested in the introduction of political parties, the more intensive inclusion of junior legislation delegates, and the potential institution of new programs to reinvigorate NJ YAG, à la the “landmark moment” of Bill Daly’s bucketing system. One such initiative he hoped for was greater integration of the cabinet into the rest of conference, which he believes Gnanaseharan is capable of doing. However, Bean was most excited about the incoming body of junior legislators. “The junior legislators could easily debate head-‐to-‐
head against any high-‐school delegate at YAG. I’m very excited to see them come into the program and become leaders.” Bean is confident that YAG will remain a strong program that will give others the same experience afforded to himself. Upon entering college, he promises to return and give back to the program that changed his life, in addition to seeing good friends. Although his high school YAG career is ending, Lt. Gov. Justin Bean is sure that the program will be in good hands.
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Page 4 “WHY I JOINED THE EXECUTIVE RESPONSE COMMITTEE” EXPLORING WHY PEOPLE CHOSE TO JOIN A NEW COMMITTEE By JP Fleming, Community YMCA
What made you choose the ERC over another committee? Justin Dickerson chose to speak about the freedom allowed in the ERC compared to another committee. “One thing that I like about ERC is it’s not a stagnant It’s always moving and that brings a new flare to conference. It’s about working together rather than a lot of division like in some other committees. !
The Executive Response Committee is a relatively new committee that was presented to us last year at YAG. Being a new committee, it can be hard to generate the same level of interest as other committees that have been around for years. Yet, I visited the Executive Response Committee this afternoon, and its was filled will a group of extremely active and involved individuals. It had people going back and forth between separate groups, making proposals on how to stop the crisis they were presented with. It had a high level of energy, and I can see why someone would want to return to this committee after already being in it, but I wanted to know what made them join ERC in the first place. I decided to pull two individuals, Justin Dickerson and Zach Dresher, and ask them the question that had perplexed me at the beginning of this conference.
committee” Which definitely rings true. “It’s always moving and that brings a new flare to conference. It’s about working together rather than a lot of division like in some other committees.” All of this was extremely evident in the time which I was in the ERC. You saw how everyone every one was a part of the committee and how they contributed. It offers everyone a great chance to have their voices heard by other delegates. They break up into small groups for a little bit, and here is a great time to have your opinions heard by everyone. That being said, you may choose who you work with, and are not subjected to a group or viewpoint. This unique system is what made Justin Dickerson take up the new committee, Mail: YMCA Youth & Government 59 Centerton Road Mt. Laurel, NJ 08054 and also what m ade him come back to it after its inaugural year in 2014.
Another individual I chose to talk to was Zach Dresher. I asked him the same question I asked Justin Dickerson and got a much different response. “It was something different” he began to explain to me. “I was looking for something different. The whole bill submission process is not particularly interesting to me.” Being someone who was motivated to have an experience that was different than a court or senate, he picked ERC. “It was something our advisor had talked to us about and I thought sure why not!”
So, after these two interviews and some time in the ERC, it’s clear to me why people wanted to join this new committee. They were looking for a new experience; something that wasn’t a bill discussion, something where they could work with their peers to accomplish a goal. They also sought the freedom that the ERC offered which meant active roles in the commitment to solve their crisis. Email: [email protected] Website: http://njyag.ymcace.org/ Facebook: YMCA New Jersey Youth & Government Program Program Director: Mike Gallagher, [email protected]