Interviews by Ashlyn Mills and Aubree Pelham
Written by Aubree Pelham
All Youth in Government delegates have their testimony story of how they became involved in the club, from a mentor teacher to their friend’s persuasion, but what about the leaders and school advisors behind the conference? Today, we interviewed advisors from a range of schools to understand their perspectives and passion behind their jobs here at the conference.
To understand how their participation in YIG started, we asked the advisors, “What made you want to become a YIG advisor.” Kaitlin Stefanski, a teacher from Fairview High School, gave a story similar to the story of many delegates, everything beginning with a mentor. “The teacher that did [YIG] before me was leaving, but she was my mentor teacher when I student taught and always talked super highly about Youth in Government, so I stepped in,” she stated. Filling in for her mentor teacher led to her finding her own passion within this conference. “I just absolutely love seeing the confidence in my students and seeing them act as professionals and really step into the real world with this.” Many advisors agreed that they found their own joy in advising by seeing their students grow socially and academically. Benjamin Parnell, a teacher from Lebanon High School, became an advisor because “I enjoy spending time with the students, and I enjoy watching them work hard on a bill or in the house committee and see them present that information in an articulate way.” His co-advisor, Matthew Shrum, continued, “I don’t really do anything here, but I enjoy it. It’s very fun to see that kids are engaged in the process. They have so much agency over what they do here it’s just really inspiring.” Lastly, a common response between advisors was that they simply got dragged along by their students. The students of Kevin Finn, a teacher from The Webb School of Bell Buckle, spoke so highly of Youth and Government that he said, “It was not necessarily something I felt familiar with, but they were so excited about it that I thought I would come along for the ride.”
The next question we asked advisors was, “What is the best advice you have given your delegates?” Kendra Mclemore from Chattanooga School for the Liberal Arts started off strong with, “Do the research and find alliances.” Adam Brooks, a teacher from Central Magnet, agreed with the importance of research and claims that his best advice is to “Be as informed as possible, whether you’re presenting or asking questions.” He also contributed, “Be bold…[stand] up and [have] your person be there and take your place.” Mr. Schrum always reminds his students to “be a goldfish,” an amazing Ted Lasso reference. But also genuinely encourages them to “have a short-term memory” if something is not as successful as they hoped and “roll with the punches.” Ms. Stefanski also tries to keep her students positive with her advice to, “be confident and to have fun with this” reinforcing that, “you’re meant to enjoy yourselves and learn.”
Lastly, of course, we had to get the advisors to make fun of their students, so we asked them, “What is the funniest thing one of your delegates has done at a conference?” Ms. Stefanski gained the most laughter with her response, telling us about how two of her previous students “did a tomfoolery bill on trying to ban toes in public.” She continued to mention that “they talked about having to put the dogs away and all of that. So that was probably one of my favorite moments.” Mr. Finn exposed the group messages between him and his students this morning explaining that “one of our students was panicked because he did not have a black belt,” as in a dress belt, “and it just led to this whole conversation about martial arts in our group message.”
While this question was asked to gain input on the advisors’ students, it quickly grew into the advisors giving insight into their own chaos. Mr. Schrum states that they witness the most commotion during bed checks, with their students “acting a fool, [having] pillow fights, calling people, running around, and doing all kinds of crazy stuff.” However, Mr. Parnell adds, “The delegates are more behaved until the three of us show up to do bed checks,” with both teachers agreeing, “We make it worse. We do enable them.”
Overall, the conference would not be possible without our school advisors leading and teaching us, and we appreciate the amount of time and effort they put in. Make sure to thank your advisors today for all the time and effort they put into supporting your club.
Department of Public Information 