Newsroom Archive for 1/26, 2006

Delegate Chris Peace and Jesse Ferguson, PLP '04

Chris Peace, who won a special election in the 97th District on Tuesday for a seat in the House of Delegates, arrived at the General Assembly building a little after 8am yesterday. He was greeted by Sorensen's Sean O'Brien (behind the camera) and Jesse Ferguson, co-founder and Executive Director of Virginia21. Both Ferguson and Peace are graduates of the Sorensen Institute's Political Leaders Program Class of 2004.

According to the Richmond Times-Dispatch today, Peace was appointed to three committees: Courts of Justice; Health, Welfare and Institutions; and Science and Technology.

There are now 57 Republicans in the House, 40 Democrats, and 3 Independents.

Karen Waters, PLP '03

Political Leaders Program Class of 2003 graduate Karen Waters of Charlottesville was quoted recently in the Daily Progress. Waters is Executive Director of the Quality Community Council which is sponsoring a four-part community discussion on poverty in the City of Charlottesville.

"We hope to raise consciousness in the community about poverty," Waters told repoerter Melanie Mayhew. "We hope to start a dialogue about how poverty fits into some of the chronic problems that we work to address."

According to the article, this four-part series is "the first step towards opening Peoples College, a community-based institute targeting adult learners in low-income areas of Charlottesville."

Last week we reported the news that proposed legislation now before the General Assembly actually had its origins as a student project in Sorensen's College Leaders Program Class of 2005. This week we learn of yet another bill our legislators are considering that also began as a student project in the same class.

Terry G. Kilgore (District 1 in Southwest Virginia) has introduced House Bill 1459, the Higher Education Tuition Lock Certificate Program. The proposed law, now before the Committee on Education, essentially locks tuition and fees for full-time college students while they are in school—thus making it easier on families and students to budget for a college education.

The origins of this bill are in the College Leaders Program, summer 2005 class. The members of the "Education Policy Group"—Mehreen Farooq of Christopher Newport University, Jennifer Jessie of
Virginia Tech, Laura Harris of UVA, Aaron Jennings of UVA and Jessica Wingfield of VCU—drafted this proposal together after many hours of research and discussion. Laura Harris later contacted Delegate Kilgore, putting to use many of the advocacy skills she had learned in the Sorensen program, and asked him to carry the bill to the House.

Congratulations to all our students!