{"id":8692,"date":"2012-02-15T15:51:40","date_gmt":"2012-02-15T23:51:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/198.57.196.122\/~gdatwofo\/theavtimes\/?p=8692"},"modified":"2012-07-01T14:13:26","modified_gmt":"2012-07-01T21:13:26","slug":"local-students-take-part-in-city-government","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/2012\/02\/15\/local-students-take-part-in-city-government\/","title":{"rendered":"Local students take part in city government"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Top students from eight local high schools took part in Lancaster's Youth in Government program Wednesday.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

LANCASTER – More than two dozen local students Wednesday got some hands on experience on how city government works, thanks to Lancaster\u2019s Youth in Government program. Now in its 22nd<\/sup> year, the program is much more than the typical shadow-a-government-official-for-the-day program.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt really prepares our kids to be engaged in government, to be responsible residents and citizens and to understand how their local government works,\u201d said Patricia Garibay, Recreation Supervisor for the Parks, Recreation and Arts Department.<\/p>\n

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Students representing different city department heads combined into groups to create land projects.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For this year\u2019s Youth in Government program, students representing different city department heads, combined into groups to go through the steps required to design and develop one of two different types of land projects — a mixed use land project that would be attractive to the entire city and a net-zero land project that would completely rely on solar energy.<\/p>\n

Garibay said students were given a budget to work with, and then required to work with their city staff counterparts to determine the impact their projects would have on different city departments.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re trying to make it as realistic as possible,\u201d said Garibay.<\/p>\n

She said a city consultant would help the student groups to combine their ideas into two complete concepts, one for the mixed-use land project and one for the net-zero project, and then the students would run a council meeting to determine which of the two projects would be best for the city.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey do a mock council meeting where they are council members, staff members and concerned citizens,\u201d said Garibay. \u201cIn the council meeting they will talk about the projects and they\u2019ll determine which project is better for the residents and which project the residents will like the most, either mixed use or net-zero.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Antelope Valley High School junior Anthony Barros represented Lancaster's mayor.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Wednesday morning, students were still in the initial stages of their land project design.<\/p>\n

Antelope Valley High School junior, Anthony Barros, was representing the role of Lancaster Mayor R. Rex Parris.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always had a passion for politics,\u201d said Barros, who is also chairman of the Youth Commission for the city. \u201cWhen I heard about the city\u2019s program for Youth in Government I was really excited, and when I applied I stated that I was really interested in mayor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barros, as Mayor Parris, said his group was hard at work designing a net-zero school facility.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re building a net-zero facility on the vacant fairgrounds site,\u201d Barros said. \u201cIt would be teamed up with Cal State Bakersfield as another school facility, except since it\u2019s net-zero it would use more alternative energy and green energy.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Paraclete High School senior Cameron Epps-Lee represented a concerned citizen.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In another student group, Paraclete High School senior Cameron Epps-Lee, was representing the role of a concerned citizen, giving his input on his group\u2019s plans to develop a multi-use facility at the old AV Fairgrounds.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re basically trying to combine residential, shops, and entertainment all into one area where you can walk to each place,\u201d Epps-Lee said. \u201cI\u2019m the person who wants the project to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Epps-Lee said his role as a concerned citizen for the Youth in Government project was not far off from what he does in real life.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very informed about the city, I read the newspaper everyday, I check news articles online and I was at the city council meeting yesterday,\u201d he said. \u201cSo I\u2019m very concerned about the city and I try to stay up on the issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

Garibay said students were selected for this year\u2019s Youth and Government program based on a stringent nomination process.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re all high achieving students, they are all in leadership positions at their schools, and they all have an interest in learning about government, so that\u2019s why they were selected for the project,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Students participating in the Youth and Government program will hold their mock council meeting next Thursday. The program will have done its job, Garibay said, if the students remain engaged in local government.<\/p>\n

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(L to R) Quartz Hill senior Gabrielle Rodriguez and Paraclete senior Stephanie Gross helped design a city land project as part of Youth in Government.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThe whole point of the project is for students to understand how city government works on a local level and with that they become more engaged as citizens and hopefully when they are older, they will want to participate [in government] because they understand it a little bit better,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Students participating in this year\u2019s Youth In Government program are from the following high schools: Bethel Christian, Desert Christian, Paraclete, Antelope Valley High, Eastside High, Lancaster High, Lancaster Baptiste, and Quartz Hill High.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LANCASTER – More than two dozen local students Wednesday got some hands on experience on how city government works, thanks to Lancaster\u2019s Youth in Government program. Now in its 22nd year, the program is much more than the typical shadow-a-government-official-for-the-day program. \u201cIt really prepares our kids to be engaged in government, to be responsible residents […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":8695,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[29,10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8692"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8692"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8692\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}