This past weekend, the Woodford County Y-Club went to Louisville to attend the KYA conference. KYA stands for the Kentucky Youth Assembly and takes place every year at the Crowne Plaza in Louisville. KYA is a mock government-style conference where students from all over the state meet up and debate about bills that other students make.
When going to the conference, students have the option to be either a delegate, bill sponsor or in a specialized program depending on how long they’ve been in the Y-Club. A delegate goes to the conference for the sole purpose of debating on bills that are presented. A bill sponsor is someone who instead of having the purpose of debating will create a bill and get to present it to the other delegates at the conference. On the first night, the bill will be ranked and if it is ranked high enough, the sponsors will get to present it in the state capital the next day. When they go to the capital they will either present it in the House of Representatives first and if it gets passed they will present it in the Senate and if it gets passed there as well they meet with the governor of the conference to get it signed.
This year for the WCHS Y-club was a great success at KYA. The conference is led by a group of students who were voted in at the last conference. This year, Conner Brumley was the KYA HS2 Governor. WCHS was able to send 48 students to the conference this year and was able to send 3 bill sponsor teams. The Bluegrass Bill Sponsor team included; Jose Avalia (9), Piper Reed (10), and Preston Graham (10). There were 2 commonwealth bills that both passed through the House and the Senate and got signed by the Governor. The first Commonwealth bill team included; Emerson Lavin (12), Addie Biles (12), Sydney Williams (12), and Maddie Loveless (12). The other team was made up of; Eza Westland Gonzalez (11), and Cara Sheffler (11). Mandeep Kaur also ran for presiding officer to be able to help run the conference next year and she won! At next year’s KYA she will have the title of Secretary of State.
Altogether, KYA was a great success this year, and we are looking forward to another great year in the Y-club.
