USN Rocks The House, Rolls the Senate, Demonstrates Exemplary Behavior Elsewhere at YIG 2015

Mackey Luffman, YIG Advisor
Twenty USN students gave the second weekend of their spring break to the Youth In Government (YIG) conference, a simulation of Tennessee state government facilitated by the YMCA’s Center for Civic Engagement.
More than 490 students from across the state gathered in downtown Nashville to propose and debate legislation to address local, state, and national issues facing Tennesseans. The YIG conference, in addition to its legislative component, includes a press component that produces print and video of the conference proceedings, a Supreme Court component that hears an appellate case and conducts judicial review of legislation, and a Governor’s Cabinet that debates policy and proposes legislation to facilitate the effective operation of state government. USN students have participated and excelled in this conference for decades, but as is their custom, the members of the class of 2015 have raised the standard for USN leadership and performance with the final YIG conference of their high school careers.

The leadership of the class of 2015 at YIG has been built carefully over the past three years. It began in 2012 when Alexandria Yu was elected to serve as an Associate Justice, and she was elected to serve in that role again for this year’s conference. In 2013, Caroline Zhao was elected as an Associate Justice of the State Supreme Court and was subsequently elected to be the Chief Justice for this year’s conference. Also in 2013, Emily Davis was elected as the Speaker of the Blue (novice) House of Representatives, and followed that success by securing her election as Speaker of the Red (experienced) House for this year’s conference. Finally, in addition to those conference officers in 2014, Douglas Corzine was selected by the conference staff and school advisors to represent Tennessee on its delegation to the Conference On National Affairs (CONA), where he won an Outstanding Statesman Award, the first USN student to win this national recognition!

And this year would see those seniors rise to the occasion and close their YIG careers on a high note for themselves and for USN. For their leadership and excellent performance, Corzine, Zhao, and Davis were all selected to the Tennessee delegation for CONA! Joining them is senior Eric Rosenthal, unanimously selected by the awards committee for the CONA delegation based on his performance as a delegate in the Red House. Zhao was also selected (for the second year in a row) as the Jenny Faenza Outstanding Justice in the State Supreme Court!

Not to be left behind, the class of 2016 accepted the leadership challenge offered by the seniors. Junior Youssef Doss was unanimously selected for Tennessee’s CONA delegation for his performance in the Red Senate. His selection meant that one quarter of this year’s state delegation will be USN students. Helping Doss as standard-bearers for the juniors is Tom Shaw, who earned an Outstanding Statesman Award for his performance in the Red Senate, and Jordan Burnett won the Outstanding Print Press Award for his work on the conference newspaper.

Joining their fellow juniors in earning recognition were Bradford Johnson, Aidan Rowan, Jacob Snyder, and Maggie Young, all nominated for Outstanding Statesman awards by members of the awards committee for their performances in the Red Senate and the Red House. The junior class was also represented by Starina D’Souza, who served on the Governor’s Cabinet as Commissioner for Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services and Fidan Baycora in the Red House.

But the conference is not an arena for class competition; it’s a stage for cooperation, and the YIG Bowl (the conference’s version of Quiz Bowl) teams from USN did just that. Quiz Bowl stalwarts Doss, Rosenthal, Rowan, and Snyder, (sounds like quite the firm) as USN’s “A” team, defended USN’s YIG Bowl title in fine style, dispatching all opponents by double-digit margins, including USN’s “B” team.

Joining in the fun at this year’s conference were freshmen Talia Barton and Deviyani Bajpai, who participated in the Blue House of Representatives, and sophomores Kevin Chen, Puja Jagasia, and Alice May in the Red House. We are confident that they will carry on USN’s proud tradition of excellence and leadership at YIG.
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University School of Nashville models the best educational practices. In an environment that represents the cultural and ethnic composition of Metropolitan Nashville, USN fosters each student’s intellectual, artistic, and athletic potential, valuing and inspiring integrity, creative expression, a love of learning, and the pursuit of excellence.