CLP 08 Day 21 Friday June 20

College Leaders Program Class of 2008
Day 21—Friday, June 20, 2008
Reported by Laura Castro of J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College and the University of Virginia

     Some of us have been anxiously waiting for this day to come while others have been dreading it, since our Culminating Project Draft was due today. As our last “Thoughtful Citizen” class, we all enjoyed the conversation in which we debriefed on yesterday’s speakers and topics.  This included a discussion of the "Lobbyist’s Ten Commandments."  We then discussed Monday’s special session and the governor’s proposal on transportation in which the Richmond Times-Dispatch website was our source of information. After going in several directions, Dr. Shields brought the conversation to the main question of the debate being: "Where do we get the money from?"
     We then changed gears and separated into two groups to discuss the following issue: "Is donating money to a campaign free speech?" After some debate on the issue, Dr. Shields showed us the Virginia Public Access Project (VPAP) website, where we saw the contributions to politicians ranging from about $100 to $550,000.  This is a valuable website from which I’ll be researching in the future.
     Towards the end of our class, we all signed a Thank you card for Dr. Shields. We definitely enjoyed his class especially when we had to get into groups and present a specific issue.  These discussions brought the class to life.
     After lunch, two staff members from the National Public Radio (NPR) came to interview us about our opinion on the John McCain and Barack Obama political race. A quote from the staff that caught my attention was: "Because of who you are, where you are, here we are."
     We then had Qian Cai educate us on "The Hispanic Population in Virginia." As a Hispanic originally from Colombia, this topic was very interesting and I believe that the collected data accurately represented the population. The data was collected from the 2006 American Community Survey which publishes on an annual basis. Some of the most attention-grabbing statistics were:
          -Hispanic population in Virginia is 6% compared to the national level being 15%.
          -Of those 6% Hispanics in Virginia 60% are United States Citizens. 
          -The Virginia Hispanic Population tripled from 1990-2006.
          -Most Hispanic children were born in the United States.
          -When it comes to age structure in the Hispanic immigrant community, there is a higher concentration between the ages 20-39.
          -Of the Hispanic immigrants in the labor force participation came mostly from males.
          -The Hispanic population carpooling is 39%, compared to the total population of 13%.
     Regarding the above presentation Jordan Miles from Longwood University said: "I really feel better educated and informed about the State’s immigration status."
     The day ended learning about grassroots organizing from Jeff Britt (PLP 07) and Felix Sarfo-Kantanka, Jr. (PLP 2004). Throughout the past three weeks we’ve learned the importance of grassroots so this was reinforcement for all of us. They talked to us about their experience with different governmental positions, which gave us an in-depth idea of the possibilities in our future as Sorensen Institute graduates.
     Finally, we were all excited that today marked the beginning of summer; and we are looking forward to the tubing trip on Sunday.

—Laura Castro, Chesterfield
   J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College, Class of 2008
  The University of Virginia Class of 2010
  College Leaders Program Class of 2008