Whilst encouraging high school students who are first-time voters to get registered for the upcoming election, Normal Community West High School invited Illinois State Representative Sharon Chung to visit their building and give students a first-hand glance into how government works.
Chung’s visit on Friday, Oct. 25 was organized by West Principal Angie Codron, who is part of the Illinois Principals Association (IPA).
The “Principal for a Day” program connects school leaders with local politicians to build a relationship “since important decisions are being made regularly in our State that affect our schools,” Codron explains.
The IPA is the bridge between the school leader and local politician. The principal has the simple task of completing a form of interest and representative Alison Maley from the IPA arranges “potential dates that may work for the visit.”
Bringing politicians to school can be a controversial venture, but Codron assures that “this was not a campaign-focused visit.”
The point of reaching out to Chung was to build a relationship between the school and the local representative body, so “[the representative can] have someone they can call…before making final decisions that get placed into law that schools have to follow.”
To ensure students could engage with the representative, social studies teacher and department chair, Dr. John Bierbaum, organized a school tour for representative Chung, led by a few students from West’s Asian Heritage Club, Shanice Stauch, Hannah Kerman, and Ayushi Patel.
“While we were on the tour, she was very attentive and shared her own input on what we talked about,” junior Ayushi Patel remarks.
“We are always proud to “showcase” our school to visitors,” Codron affirms. This tour was a “way for Representative Sharon Chung to make a connection [with] a local high school within her community.”
In addition, Dr. Bierbaum allotted time for the representative to speak to a group of his A.P. Government and Politics students during 2nd and 3rd hour and to answer any questions the public asked.
With extra motivation from donuts offered to them, students engaged in a beneficial discussion about “how [Representative Chung] got involved in politics, how the legislative process works, and how campaigns are financed,” Bierbaum shares.
Professionally, Chung is a violinist and music teacher, but became more involved in politics over the COVID-19 pandemic.
Chung was elected to the Illinois House of Representatives for the first time in 2022 and represents the 91st district in Illinois.
She is currently running for re-election.
Students appreciated the insight they gained about the work of a representative.
“I learned that she physically goes to everyone’s door to try and campaign [to get elected] and [about] how different legislation is made for Illinois–like how they decided the state mushroom,” Patel remarks.
The school established to the representative and her staff that the goal of her time with students is “to explore topics related to how the government works — not politics,” Bierbaum notes.
Creating the opportunity for students “to learn about different aspects of our government from the experts who actually have dedicated large parts of their lives [to] serving in [government].”
Outreach to local representative Chung brought the school and interested students a valuable connection and a chance to learn more about the current-day government outside of a textbook.
