MGA 2010
--Sarah Ward, Turner Ashby High School
As a first-timer at the Model General Assembly, I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect. I talked to some of my friends that had gone before and they reassured me that I would have tons of fun and that it would be a great experience. After we arrived on Thursday afternoon, I went to a reporter’s meeting to learn a little bit more about what my specific role would be for the weekend. From there, I met up with my group and went to the Joint Assembly in St. Paul’s Church. We were able to listen to people such Governor McDonnell and David Blount speak about MGA, plus hear from this year’s Youth Governor, Zain Mohiuddin.
Earlier that day at the reporter’s meeting, my friend Zach and I had talked to the reporter advisor, Mrs. Tate, about writing a story about a controversial bill that my school was patroning regarding child pornography and a new trend among teens called “sexting”. In order to write a good article for the MGA Times about this bill, we went to the Old Dominion Senate Courts of Justice Committee to see how bills were sent through committees and reported out to be debated in the House and Senate the next day. Then we interviewed Sadie Allen, a senator from Turner Ashby who was patroning the bill in the aforementioned committee. She gave us some great information and statistics regarding the bill that helped us start off writing our article. To wrap up the night, we went back to the hotel to listen to the candidates for next year’s offices give their speeches during the primary elections. A good friend of mine, Sam Baron, was running for Youth Governor and made it through the primaries to the final election to be held Friday night.
On Friday morning, Zach and I finished writing our article and then went to the Capitol to listen in on some debate in the Old Dominion House. This was a good experience because as a reporter, you are able to go wherever you want in the General Assembly Building and the Capitol to listen in on committee meetings, chamber sessions, etc. After this, we took a quick lunch break and returned to our offices in the General Assembly building to finish formatting the newspaper and send it to the printer. By about 5:30pm, all 250 of the fourteen page newspapers were printed, collated, stapled, and ready to go. All of the reporters went down to the banquet early in order to set out several newspapers at each table in the room where we would be having dinner. We then quickly went up to our rooms to get ready for dinner and headed back down to the banquet, where we had some amazing chicken, salad, and chocolate cake! J The night ended with the Youth Governor’s Inaugural Ball. The dance was great and it was a good opportunity to have fun and dance with the people you had met at MGA and with the people you already knew.
On Saturday morning, as the House and Senate were meeting in their chambers, the reporters spent the morning writing these blogs about our time at MGA or specific points of interest from the weekend. As I get ready to leave MGA 2010, I realize how much I enjoyed this experience and I am glad I listened to my friends and decided to come to Richmond for the weekend.
As a first-timer at the Model General Assembly, I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect. I talked to some of my friends that had gone before and they reassured me that I would have tons of fun and that it would be a great experience. After we arrived on Thursday afternoon, I went to a reporter’s meeting to learn a little bit more about what my specific role would be for the weekend. From there, I met up with my group and went to the Joint Assembly in St. Paul’s Church. We were able to listen to people such Governor McDonnell and David Blount speak about MGA, plus hear from this year’s Youth Governor, Zain Mohiuddin.
Earlier that day at the reporter’s meeting, my friend Zach and I had talked to the reporter advisor, Mrs. Tate, about writing a story about a controversial bill that my school was patroning regarding child pornography and a new trend among teens called “sexting”. In order to write a good article for the MGA Times about this bill, we went to the Old Dominion Senate Courts of Justice Committee to see how bills were sent through committees and reported out to be debated in the House and Senate the next day. Then we interviewed Sadie Allen, a senator from Turner Ashby who was patroning the bill in the aforementioned committee. She gave us some great information and statistics regarding the bill that helped us start off writing our article. To wrap up the night, we went back to the hotel to listen to the candidates for next year’s offices give their speeches during the primary elections. A good friend of mine, Sam Baron, was running for Youth Governor and made it through the primaries to the final election to be held Friday night.
On Friday morning, Zach and I finished writing our article and then went to the Capitol to listen in on some debate in the Old Dominion House. This was a good experience because as a reporter, you are able to go wherever you want in the General Assembly Building and the Capitol to listen in on committee meetings, chamber sessions, etc. After this, we took a quick lunch break and returned to our offices in the General Assembly building to finish formatting the newspaper and send it to the printer. By about 5:30pm, all 250 of the fourteen page newspapers were printed, collated, stapled, and ready to go. All of the reporters went down to the banquet early in order to set out several newspapers at each table in the room where we would be having dinner. We then quickly went up to our rooms to get ready for dinner and headed back down to the banquet, where we had some amazing chicken, salad, and chocolate cake! J The night ended with the Youth Governor’s Inaugural Ball. The dance was great and it was a good opportunity to have fun and dance with the people you had met at MGA and with the people you already knew.
On Saturday morning, as the House and Senate were meeting in their chambers, the reporters spent the morning writing these blogs about our time at MGA or specific points of interest from the weekend. As I get ready to leave MGA 2010, I realize how much I enjoyed this experience and I am glad I listened to my friends and decided to come to Richmond for the weekend.
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