HSLP 2010: Day 13, Thursday, July 22

High School Leaders Program Class of 2010
Day 13-Thursday, July 22
Recorded by: Chelsea Stokes, Glen Allen

We confirmed a new philosophy today: Time is just a relative thing and according to Nicole, my suitemate, 8:30 is relative… so we can be relatively late. Fortunately, all the girls were ready and on time, but some guys took this statement to heart and were “relatively” late. The morning class was filled with discussion on public reasoning and the Law of Unattended Consequences. The real fun came late in the morning when we discarded our titles of students and took on the role of the General Assembly as we played THE BUDGET GAME!

Temporary Senators and Delegates faces became red, as the blood began boiling, and the anger started flowing, all of this over a game! Being confronted with a billion dollar deficit our morals, values and ideologies were truly tested. If we took two things away from this experience it would be the art of compromising and not being emotionally attached to the budget because at the end of the day we all needed to come together. As members of the House of Representatives, we debated closing all blind and deaf schools, cutting majority welfare and Medicaid services, releasing nonviolent criminals ninety days early, and most importantly the age old issue of raising taxes. So passionate were some members in the House of Delegates that they even signed a pledge swearing not to further raise taxes. In the end no group was happy as the Senate proposed a budget in over a billion dollar of revenue while the House of Representative cut programs and a compromise was unable to formalize.

We end the day in anticipation of tomorrow’s presentation- writing talking points, practicing public speaking, anticipating and answering questions thrown at us by the YPC’s. Our two week journey is coming to an end as a nervous angst spreads among us in preparation for Friday.

High School Leaders Program Class of 2010
Day 13-Thursday, July 22
Recorded by: Catherine Emblidge, Richmond

Today was our last day of classes and I can’t believe that it is already over, our two weeks have flown by. I woke up this morning to Nicole’s alarm going off at 7 o’ clock. As we lay in bed trying to wake up, Nicole and I listened to our morning wake up song and watched our fish, Aquarius. As we got ready for our day we couldn’t help but get sad that we only had two more days together. Soon after we rushed down stairs to walk to class.

When we got to class we sat down and started our discussion on decisions and unintended consequences and then we started the budget game. The budget game was a challenge where we divided into two groups, the house and the senate. In these groups we had the task of balancing the state budget. The budget game ended up taking the rest of the day as we debated tax increases and cuts in public spending causing somewhat of a heated debate. As the day wrapped up we walked home to Bice to start our meetings with our policy groups.
We all met with our groups preparing for our mock presentation. My group was a little behind so we ended up having to work through dinner. After presentations we all worked a little longer and then it was time for bed. My roommate Nicole and I convened as usual in our room to talk about the day and read our nightly prayer.