What’s Right With Our Schools: Skyuka Hall Youth in Government Delegates
CHATTANOOGA, TN (WDEF) – Passing a bill can be an intimidating process for even the most seasoned lawmaker. Students at Skyuka Hall recently got a lesson in legislation at the Tennessee State Capitol. Their Youth in Government Delegates presented and defended their bills in front of more than 500 of their peers. What happened next is an inspiring example of what’s right with our schools.
“Having that platform and that ability to be able to speak on something you’re passionate on. But not only speak it, but defend it as well,” said Diana Stefaniuk, a high school Social Studies teacher at Skyuka Hall.
“I think that it’s incredible that we as such young people are so heavily stereotyped: to be emotional and insensitive. That we’re able to do things that current lawmakers, that are Washington D.C. are incapable of doing, which is compromising and working together for the greater good of the country,” said Callie Tallent, a junior at Skyuka Hall.
“It fosters you know public speaking skills, and getting them social skills, civic responsibilities and leadership. So those are all of the things that our population tends to struggle with sometimes,” said Rae Holbrook, the English Department Head at Skyuka Hall.
“I feel like as a person that doesn’t really like public speaking, I feel like being able to step out and I guess face that fear really helped me grow as a person,” said Ali Branham, a sophomore at Skyuka Hall.
Madison Yother: “For a lot of our students they have been marginalized. In fact we had one one of our delegates to actually wrote a bill on providing a platform for students and additional training for teachers for students on the autism spectrum,” said Madison Yother, an Enrichment and Intervention Specialist at Skyuka Hall.
“Since autism is present in one out of every 36 children, it is highly likely that a class of 30 students has at least one student on the Spectrum.”
“This was our first ever conference. We had two of our teams win outstanding States Person. Which was… we were all crying the whole entire time it was amazing. We had two of our delegates on the team passed through committee which is to make the docket. And then one of our team got passed through committee, passed through Senate, passed through house, passed through the governor’s cabinet and got signed into law. Which was… it was amazing,” exclaimed Yother.
“It was really cool for us too. Because we are such a small school, there are not many people to compete with here. And so for them to have the opportunity to go somewhere and compete on a much larger stage was I think a tremendous opportunity that everybody really wound up relishing and was a great experience,” said Stefaniuk.
