Valkyries Debate in the State Capitol

Sacred Heart students attended Kentucky Youth Assembly this week on Nov. 17-19.

KYA is a mock government conference held through the Kentucky YMCA. There, students from all over Kentucky gather to present and debate bills written by students. The professional conference is led by elected students and each year elections are hosted for the following annual conference. Students can go as a delegate, bill author, candidate or choose to take part in a special program such as the lobbyist program, media corps, judicial program and more.

On the second day participants even get to travel to the state capitol to debate the bills that highly ranked in committees.

Sacred Heart was well represented by our candidate for presiding officer, junior Lucy Mathis.

SHA senior Elena Quinones served as the governor’s chief of staff and has been involved with the Y program since middle school.

“This KYA experience was truly the most unique and best I’ve had yet. I slept less, worked more, and shook an impossible amount of hands, but going behind the scenes as chief of staff is something I would never trade,” Quinones said.

Senior Nancy LoGuidice served as secretary of the cabinet.

“Being able to lead the conference with my amazing officer team was an unforgettable experience,” LoGuidice said.

Seniors Mary Quinn and Maggie Cahill were committee chairs.

“During my first KYA, I was a bill author, and during my last, I found myself on the other side of the table as a committee chair. I was now in charge of encouraging timid delegates to speak. I was now in charge of enforcing respect of opinions among all delegates. I had finally become the leader to whom I used to look and from whom I learned so much,” Cahill said.

• Junior Kate Bruns and sophomore Sarah Farber served as a parliamentarians.
• Senior Emma Landenwich served the judicial program as a justice.
• Senior Sarah Graham served as senate clerk.
• Juniors Nora Sweeney and Alaina Eifler also participated in the judicial program.
• Sophomores Sarah Ball, Kathryn Boroughs, and Ella Janson worked as lobbyists.
• Senior Jenna Hall was on media corps for the conference.

Two of Sacred Heart’s bills were passed through the governor at the conference.

SHA as a whole was named a delegation of excellence and received the Outstanding Bill Packet Award.

On top of this, multiple SHA students won individual awards. Including senior Claire Hilbrecht who received an outstanding speaker award, Kathryn Boroughs who won Outstanding Lobbyist, and senior Evie Howard who received an Outstanding Delegate award.

“I’m impressed every year with how much work every student puts into KYA and because of that my last conference was unforgettable. It was such an honor to get the outstanding delegate award for SHA but I couldn’t have done it without all of my girls,” Howard said.