Students Win Secretary of State Ambassadors Competition

From SLJC: Student Leadership Johns Creek were awarded the Secretary of State Ambassadors State Championship at a luncheon hosted by Secretary of State Brian Kemp at the Georgia Railroad Depot. During the luncheon, all the division winners from Georgia were recognized including Student Leadership Johns Creek in Division 6 prior to being announced as the overall State champion. The event culminated a statewide competition that kicked off in September 2017 and comprised nearly 200 teams from throughout Georgia. In addition, these students received a Commendation from Governor Nathan Deal and a Proclamation from the City of Johns Creek city council recognizing their awesome accomplishment. The Secretary of State Ambassadors Program is a leadership training program for high school students in the 10th through 12th grades that encourages civic participating and voter registration. Students who serve as Ambassadors earn points for promoting civic engagement, voter registration and volunteerism. Student Leadership Johns Creek remarkably earned well over 550,000 points besting the next closest team by nearly 200,000 points. These nine students conducted the first-ever, student-led debate for mayoral and city council candidates in the city of Johns Creek. “I learned about the importance of civic participation and educating yourself about the policies that affect you.” said Vanisha Kudumuri, one of the nine student Ambassadors. “Often times people reduce political participation to merely voting, and while that is an important part of it, other things are also important such as holding community service projects, attending civic meetings, and researching current events. When we were conducting the debates, I learned about policies that I didn't know existed, but were immensely important to my daily life, such as the Comp Plan and T-SPLOST. Often times as teenagers, we are a forgotten population by elected officials, since we are not old enough to vote. It was so enlightening to participate in a program that not only accepted student participation in government, but embraced it.” According to Mayor Mike Bodker the debate that these student leaders hosted was the best, most well-organized debate he had ever been witness to. The nine Student Ambassadors are students at Northview, Chattahoochee and Johns Creek high schools: Nathaniel Alemayehu, Caroline Custis, Adiva Dutta, Aniruddha Gupta, Kaitlyn Jung, Kriti Kothari, Vanisha Kudumuri, Olivia Logan, and Sarah McWhirter.

Student Leadership Johns Creek is a competitive program that has been a highly-valued part of the community for over 6 years. Students come from Centennial High, Chattahoochee High, Johns Creek High and Northview High. Applications for the next Student Leadership Johns Creek class will be available beginning December 1, 2018, at each school’s counselor office or on-line at www.studentleadershipjohnscreek.com. For more information, please contact: Irene Sanders Executive Director at sanders@leadershipjohnscreek.com.

Image Via SLJC