CCHS Students Participate in Ohio Youth & Government

Several Central Catholic students participated in Ohio Youth and Government, a statewide program run by the Ohio Alliance of YMCAs that acts as a youth-led mock legislature and mock judicial program, with the opportunity to run for an executive office.

The students were:

Noah Amaya
Brynn Drabek
Trip Floyd
Susie Iannone
Elio Salas
Natalia Smith 

Our students participated in the legislative program this year, which gave them an opportunity to draft a bill and try to get it passed in front of a student legislature composed of students from all over Ohio. The group normally goes to Columbus to the Ohio Statehouse for a full statewide assembly, but due to COVID-19, they had to revert to a virtual Zoom "committee" session. They then held an in-person state assembly on May 15 at YMCA Camp Wilson in Bellefontaine, Ohio. 

This year, the CCHS students had two of their three bills pass through the committee and joint assembly (like the House and Senate combined) and go to the Governor's desk, and they had one of those bills signed by the youth governor into "law." CCHS junior Trip Floyd was elected Presiding Officer (similar to Speaker of the House or Senate President) for next year's state assembly.

In the past, Central Catholic has had other students elected to executive positions, like Nate Erickson (Class of 2019), who was also elected Presiding Officer; Caroline Thomas (Class of 2019), who was our 2019 OYG Youth Governor; and Leigha Schumaker (Class of 2020), who was elected to be last year's Chief Justice for the Judicial Branch. 

“Ohio Youth and Government is a very good program to join for those students interested in politics or a political career, and it especially helped me with classes like AP American Government and Politics,” said Floyd. “We are always looking for any new members!”