The first Youth & Government Media Team participated in the Texas State Y&G Conference held at the Renaissance Hotel and State Capitol this weekend. Seven students worked as part of the Print and Social Media Teams to produce two publications, short broadcasts, social media posts and photographs and videos of the entire weekend experience.

At the closing ceremonies, the Leander delegation was named Premier Delegation and senior Juan Miguel Perez and junior Jack Densmore were named Distinguished Delegates. The Media Team members are seniors Becca Brown, Shilo Criswell, Caroline Cravens, Alejandro Norato and sophomore Jared Bouloy.

When the YMCA Youth and Government Media Club first started, it had 20 members. The number then dwindled to 13. Just before the first district conference, the final drop happened, and the club was left with only seven members, three short of a full team.

However, this didn’t stop any of the seven from achieving excellence. The team swept the competition at their district conference and the entire team moved on to the State Conference.

“We were so proud of the students at the district level and so excited to have a group represent LHS at State,” Club Adviser Mrs. Danielle Bell said. “It is a great accomplishment for a pilot program to have such success and the students had a wonderful experience.”

During the State Conference students were sent out to various locations around the Renaissance Hotel and the Capitol buildings as reporters covering the events of the conference including legislative and judicial groups as well as state affairs and a model UN delegation. Students worked on strict deadlines, and had to finish anywhere from one to five stories a day.

Photographers accompanied reporters on location and captured the various aspects of the conference, YG culture, portraits of Governor and Attorney General candidates and Texas state government and their images were compiled into a slide show for the awards ceremony. Social media delegates covered various events and tweeted the results of bills and court cases and created buzz on the app Sway. While there was a lot of work involved, there was also fun activities such as Casino Night, an awards ceremony and a dance.

“I thought the conference was great. I got to meet a lot of new people and I got to tell many stories of the other delegates at the conference,” Densmore said. “And I had a great time with the rest of my team hanging out in the lobby and our hotel rooms. The dance was a lot of fun and it was great to hang out with some of my closest friends.”

You can see several of the publications produced at the conference here.