Quincy 4-H students get hands-on experience in D.C.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — It was a memorable week in the nation’s capitol for three Quincy High School 4-H students.

“It’s been really good,” said Nora Medina, a QHS junior. “They’re showing us how much we can do for our community.”

Medina, alone with Daisy Buenrostro and Elena Lopez, went to Washington, D.C., last week as part of a new joint initiative between Microsoft and the national 4-H to help boost math, science and computing skills in rural and small town schools.

According to Jeannie Kiehn, the Washington State University extension officer responsible for coordinating 4-H programs in Grant County, the program — 4-H Tech Changemakers — encourages students not only to study math, science and technology, but also encourages them to look at ways of addressing problems in their own communities.

“It started last October, and this is the first school year,” Kiehn said.

After being told about the Microsoft program, Medina said the juniors conducted a series of surveys and discovered there was a lack of digital skills and Internet access among adults in Quincy. Despite so much school information being online, many parents were unable to track their children’s progress in school.

“We taught a digital skills class at Quincy High School to adults for seven weeks,” Medina said. “We did basic skills with the phone.”

The project got noticed, and the three got a trip to the National 4-H Center, where they met with members of the Washington State congressional delegation, talked about their project and learned first-hand how legislation is written, lobbied for and passed.

And they found a number of receptive listeners among the national legislators.

“Sen. Maria Cantwell’s staffers wanted to know about the project, she listened and she was very supportive,” Buenrostro said. “It was amazing how Cantwell stepped out to speak to us.”

They met with other 4-H students from across the country for several days of instruction on how Congress works, and then got to write four of their own “bills” — conditionally lowering the voting age to 16 or 17, requiring high school computer science education, making it harder to alter congressional district boundaries for a certain group’s advantage, and making college more affordable.

“Only one of them passed,” Buenrostro said. “We did pass the computer science requirement.”

“I gained a lot of leadership experience, learned how to get to know people from other state and learned from their experiences,” Buenrostro said. “It really opened my eyes.”

Medina echoed the sentiment on leadership skills, saying that while she’s still basically a shy person, she’s learned how to be a lot more outgoing during the last year.

“I mean, I’m still shy, but I’m leading these classes,” she said. “There’s a lot of hands-on experience.”

Charles H. Featherstone can be reached via email at countygvt@columbiabasinherald.com.