New York is in its 74th year of Youth and Government, and we are all happy to be back at CONA. In New York YAG, we highly value the cultivation of leadership and the education of young people in the ways of democracy. In the family of twenty strong that we have in this year’s New York delegation, there are former members of the Governor’s Cabinet, former state committee chairs, former state Presiding Officers, and newly elected state Presiding Officers. We have quite the leadership team built up; we look forward to using CONA not only to strengthen ourselves as individuals, but to strengthen our state program. As we encounter different people and different ideas from around the nation, we bring this diversity and our opened minds to New York State in pursuit of the teaching of true democracy to as many teens as we can.
Not only do we come here to learn from other states and glean life-changing experiences, but to exercise our minds and enhance our debating abilities. As we debate our proposals and the proposals of others, we listen to the smartest people in the nation inject their knowledge and ideas into the discussion. Those of us who are apprehensive at first will soon step out of our comfort zones and realize that we too have the intellectual prowess to stand with the best, and show everyone what the Excelsior State is all about.One of the most unique experiences about CONA for New York is our round table meetings. Not only is it a time when we hash out crazy CONA moments that we saw in our committees or something quirky that a delegate did at lunch, but it is a time for reflection. Without reflection, you lose the meaning of this conference and it becomes just a week of fun. While that is extremely appealing, you can’t beat sitting in a room and finding yourself. On Sunday, we recognized the extraordinary opportunity that CONA affords us, and we all reflected on how we should grasp that opportunity. We also thought about before the conference and what made us decide to attend CONA. We all had different reasons for choosing to attend, but the consensus reached was that our goals here were to grow and meet new people and expand our horizons.
If you haven’t met a New York delegate yet, I encourage you to do so. The diversity in our state alone is surpassed only by that of this conference and I can personally say that after having spent time with these people, you would all get a good laugh and a good conversation after just a few minutes talking with any one of them. It has been a pleasure to have been a New York delegate these past four years, and always having my own delegation as part of my family will be what I miss about this conference the most.