This April, USN high schoolers headed downtown to take part in the YMCA of Middle Tennessee’s Youth in Government conference, where they debated their own written legislation, facilitated debate as officers, served as justices on the State Supreme Court, and made hilarious memes in the GroupMe.
Over the last few years, Model UN and YIG have grown rapidly at USN. This year, we took 61 students to the conference, who served in positions covering most of the YIG components.
According to faculty advisor Mackey Luffman, “Research has shown that conferences and programs like these are highly effective for teaching students both a) about their state and local governments and b) how to interact civilly with strangers they might disagree with on an issue.”
“It’s also a good place to pick up some life hacks, like ‘where is free parking in downtown Nashville?’” he added.
Luffman encourages every USN student to try YIG at least once during their time in high school. If it’s any incentive, USN upholds a reputation of coming home from conferences with a significant amount of hardware to show for their efforts before and during the weekend.
“This year is the second time that USN has put more than one delegate on the Conference on National Affairs [CONA] delegation from TN. Bronson [Schmidt ‘25] and Brendan [West ‘25] both doubled up with Outstanding Statesperson and Outstanding Bill Awards,” Luffman said.
“[Additionally] a USN Supreme Court Justice has been Outstanding Justice for the past four years,” he added.
This year, Ellie Rothman ‘25 was named Outstanding Justice. Previous winners of the same award include Henry Gatto ‘25, Riya Narayan ‘23, and Arnav Reddy ‘22. This year, Gatto was selected for the CONA delegation.
Luffman joked that the class of 2025 “has won a per capita GDP of awards that hasn’t been seen in years.”
This group was recognized alongside all the other underclassmen who won various Outstanding Delegate and Outstanding Bill awards at a high school assembly a few weeks after the conference, a departure from the norm. This occurrence was due to the inclement weather that cut this year’s conference short.
A tornado and hotel power outage did not stop USN students from bonding and staying positive on a Saturday night, even after the YMCA-sponsored dance was cancelled. However, the next morning the conference in its entirety was cut short, forcing intent speeches to go unspoken and planted pro/con questions to go unasked.
The larger benefit that YIG offers, aside from the aforementioned meme-filled GroupMe, is the opportunity to practice civic engagement in a controlled environment. By participating in YIG, students have been able to grow and develop their civil discourse capacities and even effective legislation-writing.
“Something that most USN delegates appreciate is that effective legislation is really about setting guidelines for the executive and judicial branches to carry out the work of government rather than some of the more radical moralizing legislation we’ve seen from some actual legislators,” Luffman said.
Zooming outside the world of mock legislature, Luffman adds that “the media focuses on the federal government, but in the end, ‘all politics is local.’”
YIG is an accessible, supportive vessel to learn more about engaging with that government or even just learning about how to be a better-informed citizen.
Editor’s Note: The author is a participant in this year’s Youth in Government conference.
