Middle School Students Get Inside Look at Government

Pictures of Middle school students
  • Published May 30, 2023

    WCS middle school students across the district experienced the political process at this year's YMCA Tennessee Youth in Government Conferences at the State Capitol May 5 and 12.

    The annual Youth in Government Conferences give students around Tennessee the opportunity to become government officials for the day. Students create and debate bills with their peers while serving as representatives, senators, lawyers, lobbyists and more.

    "There are many benefits of Youth in Government for middle school students," said Sunset Middle social studies teacher Wilson Boyd. "They practice critical thinking and research through the bill-writing process, public speaking skills as they advocate for their bills and learn about civic engagement and current events by playing the role of a state legislator. One of the highlights for participants is using the actual State Capitol building and legislative hearing rooms. Students really feel as if they're legislators, and they take their roles seriously. It's quite fun to hear them debate each other about actual issues facing Tennessee."

    At the middle school conferences, students received awards such as Outstanding Statesperson and Outstanding Bill.

    The students who were honored at the conferences are listed below by school:

Brentwood Middle

  • Outstanding Statesperson

    • Matthew Greer
    • Daniel Joseph

    Outstanding Bill

    • Sushaan Chanda
    • Daniel Joseph

Grassland Middle

  • Outstanding Statesperson

    • Hayes Duke
    • Ryan Marina
    • Aidan Ogles
    • Benjamin Rader
    • Elliot Rosenbaum
    • Parker Warf

    Outstanding Bill

    • Ryan Marina
    • Hunter Plotkin
    • Parker Warf

Hillsboro School

  • Outstanding Statesperson

    • Cassidy Crow
    • Katelyn Levy
    • Elizavetta Nikolskaya

    Outstanding Bill

    • Maddie Barton
    • Caroline Bate
    • Oliver Bluss
    • Addie Bottiaux
    • Cassidy Crow
    • Kingsley Fisher
    • Molly Morency
    • Elizavetta Nikolskaya
    • Logan Scrivener

Legacy Middle

  • Outstanding Bill

    • Edith Chapman
    • Anna Brooke Davis

Mill Creek Middle

  • Outstanding Statesperson

    • Joshua Gultnieks
    • Nathan Hammel
    • Margaret Ann Ladd
    • Allison Rigdon

    Outstanding Bill

    • Cooper Moreno
    • Grady Rodway
    • Raines Royal

Page Middle

  • Outstanding Bill

    • Anika Banerjee
    • Ashrita Raj

Spring Station Middle

  • Outstanding Statesperson

    • Carson McCord
    • Cecilia Wooldridge

    Outstanding Bill

    • Carson McCord
    • Josiah Palmer
    • Sam Peach

Sunset Middle

  • Outstanding Statesperson

    • Hea Ashar
    • Deepika Balamurugaran
    • Aneesh Koranne
    • Andrew Sam
    • Dak Mukerji

    Outstanding Bill

    • Ryan Lee
    • Neerav Naidu
    • Andrew Sam

Thompson's Station Middle

  • Outstanding Statesperson

    • Zoey Byrd

    Outstanding Bill

    • Charlotte Mabury
    • Caleb Risden

Woodland Middle

  • Outstanding Statesperson

    • Evan Daruwalla
    • Jeffrey Fedorov
    • Ricky Gu
    • Aarnav Khanna
    • Yuny Kim
    • John Paul Kukulka
    • Mehr Malhotra
    • Yahshaswi Miriyala
    • Kushal Munjeti
    • Anish Pedi
    • Luke Sanders
    • Owen Sanders
    • Rehaan Shaik
    • Darsh Shrivastava
    • Medha Tandon

    Outstanding Bill

    • Evan Daruwalla
    • Ricky Gu
    • Kaarunya Kaki
    • John Paul Kukulka
    • Amelia Madrid
    • Kushal Munjeti
    • Anika Pandey
    • Anish Pedi
    • Owen Sanders