Cape Coral Youth Council reports on D.C. trip
City panel members hone skills as they participate in National League of Cities Youth Leadership Council
Nine Cape Coral Youth Council students got a closeup look at the nation’s capitol and its inner workings recently.
Members of the Cape Coral City Council’s appointed youth advisory group and six chaperones traveled to Washington, D.C. for five days for the National League of Cities Youth Leadership Council.
Youth Council Chair Lexie Skorzak, a senior at Oasis High School, said the trip to Washington, D.C. was the best journey of her life because she’s always wanted to go into politics.
“It truly was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I want to work there someday,” she said.
She said every experience was far better than she hoped.
“One moment we went into the old Supreme Court,” she said, adding that they were “sitting in the room where most major decisions happen in our country.”
Skorzak said they also went to museums and saw the Declaration of Independence.
She said they were part of the planning committee to talk about affordable housing within municipal governments. Skorzak spoke to a room of 200 youth delegates.
“We had a guest speaker who taught us about the 30% rule and how much we want to be spending on affordable housing,” she said of the four different types of affordable housing.
A case study was created, along with a budget, so the Youth Councils could design their own city and implement different affordable housing in their city.
“I got to meet so many people across the country. We had a person from almost every state, which was awesome,” she said.
Skorzak said right now she is going to the University of Florida for political science, but is on the wait list for Columbia.
“I want to go to law school. My goal is to be a criminal defense attorney,” she said, adding that she wants to also work in municipal or state government as a representative.
The Youth Council liaison said they had the best time.
“I was so proud of these kids. They participated in the Youth Council portion of the conference. Our group led groups on affordable housing roundtable discussions. They really shined. They stood out. They were so eloquent. They worked really well with other Youth Councils,” said Cape Coral Councilmember Jennifer Nelson-Lastra.
The Youth Council had a behind-the-scenes capitol tour, as well as the opportunity to meet other Youth Council kids from all over the country.
“They got close with a group from California, Oklahoma. I think they saw how other Youth Council operate throughout the country,” Nelson-Lastra said. “I think they gained perspective. They gained collaboration. They gained inspiration from seeing these other Youth Council operate and what some of their issues were. I think they really just gained a broader perspective of what other municipalities face just like ours. They are gaining that perspective that really opened their eyes to the uniqueness of the municipalities across the country.”
Many of the Youth Council members said the trip to Washington, D.C. was an experience to remember.
Senior Member Claire Johnson, a student at Oasis High School, said the trip was an amazing experience. She said they attended the conference, met Youth Councils from around the United States, toured the White House and capital.
“It was a great trip for many reasons,” Johnson said. “I had never been to D.C. before. It opened a lot of new doors for our future and what we want to do.”
The she said she always wanted to be a lawyer but never knew she wanted to go into politics until that trip. She is committed to Florida International University to major in political science with a prelaw track to law school.
“It opened my eyes to a different side of what I want to do,” Johnson said.
Johnson said she enjoyed meeting all the different people and seeing how they help their communities. They brought back ideas from other Youth Councils, as well as giving them different ideas to bring back to their community.
Johnson said they also brought their mental health project to Washington, D.C. to open up the conversation about mental health and bring information to other Youth Councils.
“Mental health was introduced when we were networking,” Johnson said. “It wasn’t a direct topic of the conference.”
Johnson said they talked about affordable housing when they were placed into different groups with different council members. They talked about implementing affordable housing and what may be better to do.
“I definitely learned a lot. I am more informed and look out for these things that maybe we didn’t before,” Johnson said. “Youth isn’t involved in topics like affordable housing. We are the future — in things that we need to be informed about and this kind of showed me a pressing topic and pay attention to these types of things and learn about them to help make a difference.”
Junior member Kamila Vargas, a dual enrollment student at Cape Coral High School, said her favorite part of the trip was seeing the capital and the conferences.
“We got a tour kind of twice — first with the group we went with and the second time it was someone that worked in a representative office,” she said, adding to was interesting because they provided more in-depth details. “We got to go under the capital where all the trains are and the trolleys and we got to go into the Congress room.”
Vargas took away a lot of information that she learned from other Youth Council members, how they ran their Youth Council and their City Council ran their government.
As a junior, she has a two-year term on Youth Council and said next year, the Youth Council should definitely attend the National League of Cities Youth Leadership Council.
“I think going to the capital of our country is so important in learning more about politics and about how different cities run and different Youth Councils run. We got to see that first-hand,” Vargas said.
The trip she said definitely made her think about politics, as others have shared their passion, which was intriguing. Before the trip she was thinking of pursuing finance in international business.
“The Youth Council has opened so many opportunities for us to get more involved in our community and talk more to the youth of our city,” Vargas said.
Nelson-Lastra said they are having a thank-you party at Nice Guys Pizza at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, April 23.
“We are inviting really anybody from the community — definitely individuals who donated as a way to say thank you because we feel like so many people — people we didn’t know from the community stepped up,” she said. “They believed in us and gave us money, and it was just so incredible — it really was a community effort.