Kankakee Times

A Youth Advisory Council (YAC) that took place recently gave students a chance to get some hands-on experience at a mock lawmaking session.

The meeting at the Elks Lodge in Pontiac on Friday drew raves from the youngsters who heard Sen. Jason Barickman (R-Bloomington) pass along information about the legislative process.

“We welcomed dozens of students from nearly 20 different high schools in the 53rd District to try their hand at the lawmaking process during the fall Youth Advisory Council,” Barickman posted on Facebook Monday. “This event gives the students a chance to discuss and debate ideas and get immediate feedback from their peers. It is a positive growing environment.” 

“I think it’s really interesting, I’ve never been to something like this,” Normal West student Abigail Morse said in a Barickman news release. “Usually, I stay away from politics because I don’t want to get in fights and arguments, but this has been a different experience, and I probably won’t scare away from politics anymore.”  

Another student echoed the sentiment.

“I think it’s been really good, it’s been really informative, and it’s been different than anything I’ve ever been to,” Hoopeston High School student Emma Rayls said in the release. “I’ve been to conventions, and they’ve had speakers, but they’ve never had speakers that were politicians speaking different mindsets, and they’ve never had interactions with the audience that share different opinions.”

This was not the first YAC meeting that Barickman has hosted this year. In the spring, he also held a YAC gathering.

“Every year, I get inspired by the fact that you know these are some of the future leaders of our communities, and our state, and our country and and I encourage them to act upon that,” he said after the spring event. “If you listen to them today, they're very mature. Their ideas are very well thought, they're super informed. You can tell that they're not thinking of issues on a first impression. They do their homework, and that should give us all hope.” 

Barickman was elected to the Senate in 2012. He attended Illinois State University, graduating with bachelor’s degree in Political Science, according to the his Senate biography.