Local Student to Join Governor's Youth Council
 Taylor Garrett of Egremont was selected to serve on the Governor's Youth Council. |
While Garrett is a little nervous about shaking hands with the governor at the Jan. 14 swearing-in, she has no qualms about her responsibilities as a council member as she has already begun to dive into the community and find out what her peers and her school need in terms of laws and policy. As the president of the student council, varsity soccer player, Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD) member and varsity cheerleading captain, the Egremont resident said she is ready to take the next step toward change.
Question: This is such a commitment; what prompted you to apply for a position on the council?
Answer: I think that there is only so much that I can change in my school being student council president. It’s going to be great to work with the governor and to talk to other students and leaders within our own community and to get ideas from them. I’m so involved at my school; in making things better and getting more kids involved. This is about branching out for me and for my school.
Q: What classes or topics are you most drawn to?
A: I've always loved social studies and history and politics. Lately, my favorite class is economics. I'm not necessarily political; I don't have a set of rules that say what's right and wrong to do politically, but I do know what's right for my school and what we need. Last year, I attended Day on the Hill in Boston and I noticed that they were mostly funding transportation, yet my school recently had to let go of a theater coach that the kids loved. That made no sense for our school. We should be funding teachers that the students love and are excited about. If they are excited, then they probably won’t mind a longer bus ride to school.
Q: Who inspires you most? Who is your role model?
A: I'm definitely inspired by people who do their own thing and are independent; a person who is willing to stand up for what they believe in even if I don't necessarily agree. Somebody that doesn't just change their mind because it's easy.
Q: What advice or words of wisdom could you offer your peers?
A: That everything takes commitment. That's what I think a lot of students are lacking. I even see it in sports when people don't show up for practice. That’s not the way that I do things. To get somewhere I know that I have to be committed. In fact, that's top on my list of issues for the council; getting kids interested in doing something at school, anything. I was at a faculty meeting a while ago and they said that smoking marijuana and doing heroin were on the rise here. That's not good. I don't think that these things would be happening if kids had something to do that really captured their interest. It's all about getting kids involved because they want to be.
