2024 HSLP: Day 14

High School Leaders Program Class of 2024
Day 14: Friday, July 26
Reported By: Kayleigh Johnson, Carroll County High School and Josiah Riverson, Woodberry Forest School 

Today, the 2024 Sorensen Scholars presented our policy projects to a panel of judges at the Rotunda. Our teams dedicated hours almost every day to refining our projects and preparing them for a potential presentation at the general assembly.  We are grateful for our panel of judges for their time, questions, and feedback.  We also want to thank our Youth Program Managers for helping us with every step along the way!  We had the pleasure to hear wise words from five speakers today, as they shared a little bit about what they do everyday as well as giving us advice as we continue in our political paths.  Our first speaker was James Abrenio, owner of Abrenio Law in Fairfax, Virginia.  He shared his journey through law as well as gave us the wise words, “If I can only affect one life.”  He showed us what compassion is and taught us that we must see people for who they are.  Our next speaker was Steven Statzer, Lead Infrastructure Engineer at Point Broadband.  He shared with us how we must be able to work across party lines while remaining understanding.  Mr. Statzer also made the point to remind us that we are the present, what we do today affects the world in some way.  He taught us that we must take action, be vocal, and be informed. We then heard from Meron Yohannes, the policy advisor for Gina Raimondo. With Ms. Yohannes, we discussed many wide ranging topics from the Internet to Commerce. We then talked to the legislative aides James Manetz and Grayson Lewis. These two legislative aides discussed many different things with the class such as what future goals they wanted to achieve and their funniest experience during their career.