Trip gives students opportunity to see General Assembly in action
By Phyllis Moore
Published in News on June 30, 2010 1:46 PM
Cole Tisdale is a rising junior at Southern Wayne High School with aspirations to go to college and study business administration.
But a fortuitous trip to the General Assembly last week gave him pause.
"I wanted to learn about how laws and bills get passed," he said. "I thought it would just be a very interesting trip to go on."
Witnessing legislators in action -- and finding out about the possibility of serving as a student page -- piqued his interest. Who knows, he said. He may now decide one day to go into politics himself.
"Now that I have learned some more about it, I will probably take it into consideration," he said.
Kiera Rowe, who will be a senior at Goldsboro High School next year, also expressed interest in being a student page.
She said she first learned about the day trip, hosted by Sen. Don Davis, from her civics teacher.
"We always talk about the General Assembly and the government," she said. "I always wanted to see it, so this was a great opportunity."
About 30 students made the trip. Other schools represented included Eastern Wayne High School and Brogden and Dillard middle schools.
It turned out to be a good day for the visit, Davis said. In addition to seeing legislators in action, the national championship team from Duke, the Blue Devils, were recognized and a bill relevant to Goldsboro and Wayne County was also on the floor. Senate Bill 1445 represented the transfer of authority for the Wayne Airport from the city to the county.
"I was just really excited to see the students from Wayne County in Raleigh," Davis said. "They asked some really good questions. ... We spoke about some other issues impacting Wayne County. They were very excited and I was just glad to have them.
"Not everyone has the opportunity to come to Raleigh, come to the General Assembly and actually see what happens."