Page 6 June 2, 2016 TORRANCE TRIBUNE TerriAnn in Torrance Torrance Youth in Government By TerriAnn Ferren How long has it been since you had a conversation with a young adult from Torrance? For me, it had been awhile, and I wanted to find out what one of the participants of Students and Government Day thought about the city, state, and country, especially in the middle of an election year. Luckily, Jett Hays met with me, after his basketball practice and shared his experience of participating in the 11th Annual City of Torrance Students and Government Day on May 3. The idea for Students and Government Day was Cindy Scotto’s, along with brainstorming with former Mayor Dee Hardison, and implementation and cooperation with former Mayor Frank Scotto. What exactly is Students and Government day? Their mission statement says, “Students and Government Day was created to assist Torrance students in the 8th grade in developing an effective civics education. Students who recognize and understand how local government works, become more informed and involved citizens and voters. By participating in Students and Government Day, students learn the roles of the City Council and city staff by conducting a portion of a City Council meeting, learning the mechanics of self-governance, and participating at a local level.” Cindy Scotto said has always felt that it is important for students to not only know how government works but to become active in the process. “Frank and I had the idea for Students and Government Day in 2006. With the help of Dee Hardison we were able to see the concept become reality,” Scotto said. “We were also lucky to have a great support staff through the city and of course, the support of all the city officials, department heads, Mayor, and Council. This is our 11th year bringing 21 eighth grade students from all Torrance schools to the city to spend a day job shadowing and learning about Torrance. They also have the opportunity to conduct a ‘real’ city council meeting that evening. This event takes place the first Tuesday in May. The committee is Chief of Police Mark Matsuda, Josh Wijayaranta, age 14, Jett Hays, age 14, and Councilman Geoff Rizzo. chaired by myself and Sandi Monda.” Once a year, TUSD (Torrance Unified School District) invites all 8th graders, through their government teachers, (or on-line) to write a 100 – 150 word essay. This year the topic was; “In November 2016, the voters will be electing our 45th President. If you could run for President, what issues would be the most important to you, and why?” A panel of five judges ranked over 1,000 entries and the 21 winners were invited to City Hall, Tuesday, May 3, where they shadowed an elected official or department head, and ran the City Council Meeting. Jett Hays was one of those chosen. Jett was born in Torrance at Little Company of Mary Hospital on May 25, 2002 to Todd and Debbie Hays. This fourteen-year-old 8th grader attends J.H. Hull Middle School, and when I asked him about his interests, he said, “I like to play sports - basketball, baseball, and soccer. I like to read and I like to invent.” Invent? This is a multi-faceted young man. I asked him what his favorite sport was and he told me he likes them all and is a team member of all three. I then glanced over at Debbie with a knowing nod because I knew that meant she spends a great deal of time driving to and from practices and games. In addition to sports, I found out Hays is very interested in government and politics and told me he wants to be involved, eventually. He, along with several of his classmates visited Washington D.C. over this past Spring break. “I have always been interested in it government and what is going on. It was one week and we saw all the major tourist attractions and all the museums, which was really cool,” Hays said. “We toured the White House, but there are only a couple of rooms to tour, but it was still really cool to go inside and see it up close. I want to start as a sports player, then maybe invent a couple things, and then go into politics.” Hays said Mr. Melo, his history teacher at J.H. Hull announced the upcoming essay competition. “He told us about the program and designated one period for us to write our essays because he wanted us to get involved,” Hays said. I asked Jett what he would do to help the country and he answered, “I would try and bridge the gap between political parties and opening up America to all ideas and people.” I remember my 8th grade civics teacher, Sister Mary Marcellina. She was unique because she taught us about world news, and the topical issues of the day, never inserting her views. She taught us to think for ourselves and look at a world larger than our neighborhoods. Sounds to me like Mr. Melo is a lot like Sister Marcellina. “Our teacher [Mr. Melo] likes to talk a lot about what’s going on around us, not just what they teach us in the history books. Every day he will look in the newspapers and on-line and he will see what is a hot topic,” Hays said. What did Jett write? Here is his answer to the essay question. “Politics: ‘Conflict or debate between two parties having or hoping to achieve power.’ Politics has led us astray from the basic principles upon which this great nation was founded – life, liberty and justice for all. If I were President, there would be no red states or blue states; there would be the UNITED States of America. And, as a leader on the UNITED States of America, all would Send Us Your Father And Sons Photos! We’d love to publish them in our Father’s Day issue. We will include as many as possible. All you need to do is email us a photo as a .jpg file and we will do our best to get it in. Please submit by June 9th. E-mail them to management@ heraldpublicatons.com. Include a phone number, in case we have to reach you. Thank you! A Salute See TerriAnn, page 8 to Graduates! A Chance to Honor and Recognize your Graduating Senior Tell us what college, vocational school or other endeavor they will be embracing after graduation and highlight their accomplishments. Send a photo and 100 words, or less, and we will publish in a special section “Salute to Graduates”. The section will be published in our June 16th issue, so you have an opportunity to include a graduation photo. High School photos would work nicely too. Cost is $100.00 Please send photo and text to marketing@heraldpublications.com. by June 9th congratulations
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