Henry Clay Center College Student Congress: The Art of Compromise

The art of compromise is extremely essential in a world of politics that continues to be disgustingly polarized. Learning how to cooperate with others is an invaluable skill, especially when different values pose a challenge to creating policies on behalf of an entire country. No nation can thrive when individuals refuse to work together to push forward for the betterment of their people's lives.

50 amazing students.

Thank you for making this program possible. 

The Henry Clay Center for Statesmanship College Student Congress (what a name, I know) was a phenomenal experience as a young, aspiring public servant. With a recommendation to attend on behalf of the great state of Vermont from Senator Patrick Leahy (the most senior member of the Senate, woohoo Leahy!), I was able to meet 49 other students from every state in America at this week-long program in Lexington, Kentucky (go wildcats!). Little did I know that I would build lasting relationships with these 49 other students, which is an extremely valuable network of connections to have in the future (and for your information, yes -- Wyoming does, indeed, have people living in it, so now if I ever need anything from Wyoming, I know who to call). Living on the campus of the University of Kentucky while experiencing the beautiful rolling hills of the bluegrass state already makes me want to book my next visit. 

When I first arrived, it felt like my first day of college all over again. None of us knew each other, so we just awkwardly walked around and had to introduce ourselves in hopes that we would become friends. Luckily for me, my roomie (who I did not know was my roomie) and I had messaged on Instagram since she posted a story that she was on her way and I saw that she was from South Carolina, which I am quite familiar with due to my college career in North Carolina. While secretly hoping that she would be my roommate for the week, I walked into my dorm room to see the second half of the bathroom counter filled with just as much makeup and hairspray as my side, and immediately I knew it was her. It was fate. We are long lost twins. We spent the first night mingling with the other students over the introductory dinner, and when we realized there was an insomnia cookies, we immediately took off. WOW - I love Lexington. Some of us broke off and went to grab a drink downtown (for those 21 years of age...) and it was a lovely evening of bonding and cracking jokes at the lovely girl from Harvard, Rosa, who is one of my favorite humans ever. 

The next morning, we all woke up and headed out to our first stop, the Council of State Governments. First of all, I had no idea this existed. Whaaaat? How cool! They even have a dog named Scout. I could totally see myself ending up in this office someday. The day was spent doing team-building exercises and learning about ourselves in a team setting, which I really enjoyed since I had never done anything of this nature. A lot of the tasks challenged me and showed me the role that I play in these situations, especially in my roles at school. At first, I think some of us may have been confused as to why we were doing all of these different exercises, but it made a lot more sense once we got into our policy-making in our individual groups. That night, we all hung out together in the common area (which later became our favorite place over the week) and had a really good time just getting to know each other's personalities before having to dive into the more serious stuff over the next few days. 

When Thursday rolled around, many of us were already exhausted from the previous two days of traveling and socializing, so the morning was a bit of a rough start. We had a session with a professor specializing in public policy where we learned how to go about the entire policy process (very intense, let me tell you) and then we heard from a panel made up of a professor, journalist, lobbyist, and attorney, who would later be the judges of our presentations, about their backgrounds and what they have done in this realm. From here, we broke off into our sub-groups of our groups (ie - the ideological side that we were on) to analyze our policies and create our own proposals. My subgroup was the liberal side of net neutrality and e-commerce, so as I'm sure you're probably thinking, what the heck is that? Ya, us too. Net neutrality and e-commerce are not the sexiest of topics, so we really did not know where to start since we had very limited background knowledge on these two realms. We spent the afternoon researching and trying to understand the larger issues with net neutrality and e-commerce before we eventually wore ourselves out and went off to a beautiful dinner at Three Chimneys Farm. At this reception, we mingled with a lot of the sponsors of this amazing program that would not be possible without them, so it was nice to see who was behind what we were doing. 

attempting to break down e-commerce

The beauty of KY.

All about the lovely food here!

Thankful for making new friends 

Once we got back to campus, we all changed out of the business professional attire we had worn out all day, and started our negotiations. As predicted, trying to negotiate on a Thursday night after a long day of focusing is not the easiest thing to do, so this didn't last too long, especially since tensions were high and we didn't know how we wanted to go about our compromises. All of the "dealbreakers" we had set up for the liberal side were the policy proposals of the conservatives and vice versa. When putting us all in a room together, everyone started yelling and talking over each other, so we had to develop a "talking stick." When the clock struck 11PM, time was up. We knew our limits, and we decided to just start fresh on a new day since we clearly were not getting anything done that night. 

My roomie was all about feeding the group for "good morale"

So, Friday rolls around, and it's crunch time. The entire day is dedicated to compromising since the presentations are on Saturday. We gather into a room and pick up where we left off - things like, how do we decide who defines a nexus? Is internet a public utility, or should it be labeled something else? These are concepts that I had never put any thought into previously, so some of these ideas were really stumping. I was one of the quieter ones of the group due to my lack of knowledge on this topic (and all things business/tax related honestly), but I learned a ton just from listening to the other group members talk. Observing the group dynamic was more beneficial to me than engaging in it because I was able to see how they interacted and how this may parallel what our actual Congress is like in these sessions, since after all, these are the future leaders of America (we were told that at least 30 times on this trip). This went on all day, and eventually, as expected, we reached a joint policy proposal that both sides felt confident in. All we had left to do was create the presentation. 

Saturday: the big show. All 50 of us show up in the lobby of our dorm and nervously grab fruit and snacks before we scurry off to practice the presentations last minute. Luckily, I didn't have to present, so I was just there for moral support and smiles. We all gathered into the presentation hall and prepared to watch the first presentation about health care. During the questioning, this group got thrown very tough questions, which made the rest of us even more nervous. The next group's topic was North Korea, which is obviously a very hot topic at the moment and spurred even tougher questions. So, of course, when it's our turn, we are all shaken and just hoping that the panel of judges know the least about our topic since it isn't as "hot" as the others. As I had predicted, my group members blew it out of the park. Net neutrality and e-commerce are very confusing topics for the average American since they are not highlighted by the media like other topics are, so the fact that my group was able to break down and analyze this topic over three days really shows me the power that my generation has. After the presentations, we had our last afternoon of free time, so naturally, we found the closest happy hour and spent the afternoon with each other laughing away. It's times like those that I will always remember. 

To check out our presentation, click here. 

When conservatives & liberals come together, we look pretty dang good. 

Always laughing at each other through the process 

Already missing my girls!

Had to celebrate with some happy hour, right?! 

Saturday evening was a lovely closing event spent at Spindletop Hall which is owned by the University. Before eating, we all gathered around a massive flat screen TV in the basement to watch the Preakness and cheer on Good Magic (who did so well in the race until the very end). When we gathered around the tables for dinner, a wash of sadness came over me. This was my last night with these people all in one room. 4 days prior, all of them were complete strangers to me, and now some of them are people who will be my friends for life. Each of us receieved a certificate, one by one, and although we were all getting one, every time a name was called everyone was hooting and hollering for one another. In this moment (jeezsh, I sound like I'm a character in The Fault in Our Stars), my heart was so full. Here we are, a room of 50 students who all come from different backgrounds and ideologies, celebrating the end of a long week together in happiness and pride in our work. Even if a member was called up from our opposing group, we were clapping as loud as we could like we were proud soccer moms. As the names went on, we got louder and louder just for the fun of it, and probably because we didn't want the night to come to an end. Getting on to the coach bus to go back to campus was a bittersweet moment, and as soon as we all were on, we were already making plans for what to do for our last night together. 

Stunning.

We clearly liked group photos! 

"Leave politics at the door" was our common motto for the week. When we were "in session," we were acting on behalf of our people's best interests. As soon as we left these rooms, we turned back into our normal human selves. It was a crazy phenomenon to witness because we all recognized that this is probably exactly how our actual Congress runs. They fight for hours all day, and then they all go out to grab a beer together later that night. We are all humans. This makes me truly question why this intense polarization exists since after all, we are all humans. If 50 of us were able to come together and compromise on real-life topics, why can't the actual Congress do this? What is the issue? The art of compromise is a beautiful thing and I wish there were more programs out there like this one to promote cooperation. I do not want to enter into my career and be immediately turned off by the disgusting polarization. Something must change, and it starts with us - the future leaders of America. 

And of course, the "twins" got matching UK shirts :) 

Miss you Momo!

For anyone interested in this amazing opportunity, please don't hesitate to reach out to me. I could talk about this endlessly and will be forever grateful to have been able to attend this at such an influential time in my life.