Westfield High School Earns Outstanding Delegation Award at Youth Government Conference

Westfield, NJ -- Competing against more than 20 New Jersey high schools, Westfield High School’s Youth and Government Club earned the Outstanding Delegation Award as well as several team and individual honors in Trenton this month.

A total of 42 Westfield High School students accompanied by teachers/advisers Daniel Farabaugh and David Della Fera participated in the Youth and Government Conference held April 15 to 17 at the State House.

“The students did very well individually and collectively,” stated Della Fera.

Albert Chen received the Outstanding Statesperson award and Felicia Mermer was named Premier Youth Secretariat.

The conference is intended to simulate legislation and afford student delegates the opportunity to debate relevant matters to state government. Isabel Lee, Felicia Mermer, and Juliana Yang won awards for Outstanding Legislation. Successfully passing their bills into law at the conference were Jeffrey Yang, Nicole Eisenberg, Felicia Mermer, and Albert Chen.

Five Westfield High School students were selected to attend the Council on National Affairs in North Carolina this summer: Austin Chen, Isabella Gelfand, Ben Halevy, Bryanna Reinhardt, and Ellie Smith.

Samantha Della Fera and Felicia Mermer were selected as alternates for the Council.

A number of Westfield eighth graders attended as Junior Legislators this year through the Westfield YMCA. One of them, Kailey Zhao, a 7th grade at Edison Intermediate School, was named Outstanding Junior Legislator.

The 2016 Westfield High School officers, who spent the past year preparing for and organizing the event and its related days of service, included seniors Isabella Gelfand, Frank Guerriero, Bryanna Reinhardt, and Ellie Smith and junior Rafaela Laitamaki.

Elected as officers for the 2017 Youth and Government conference were Ben Halevy and Rafaela Laitamaki.

In addition to the significant student awards, David Della Fera, English teacher at Westfield High School, who is in his 13th year as adviser to the Youth and Government Club, received the Sly Award for Excellence. This is given to one adult adviser each year in recognition of their long term contributions to the program. It is the biggest honor the conference bestows on an adult adviser.

The Youth and Government program has been run by the YMCA since 1936. Marty Collett is the Westfield YMCA YAG coordinator.

(Photo provided: Eleventh graders Loukas Carayannopoulos and Nina Alameno were among 42 students from Westfield High School who participated in student-run legislative sessions in the New Jersey State House during the Youth and Government annual conference attended by more than 20 high schools. Westfield High School earned many distinctions during the 3-day event, including the Outstanding Delegation Award.)

--By Lorre Korecky