Fayetteville Upward Bound

The Fayetteville Team went to speak to the teens of Upward Bound at Fayetteville State University. When we first arrived on campus, I felt unsure of how the teens would react to our presentation and the HB 1260 bill. I hoped every teen would be as excited as Reniki and I were about the bill. Also, I had never worked with teenagers before and I didn’t know what to expect. Reniki used to be a tutor for Freshman English and kept saying how teens loved to express their opinions, which kinda made me nervous. When we went inside the building, the Upward Bound organizer was there to greet us. She was extremely friendly and immediately took us to where the teens were. Then we split up the teens into two small groups and searched for a building we could use. After walking back and forth through the hot heat of Fayetteville weather, we found a room. It was in the first building were we started. Our first group consisted of 15 to 17 year old teens. Just as Reniki had said they had a lot of opinions, but it was because they were interested. Everyone was paying attention and they even wrote a paragraph each on how HB 1260 would be a bill that would help them. However, when the second group walked in, I realized they were going to be different. This group of teenagers were a lot younger and seemed to be more energetic then the last group. Still, they were very interested in politics and most of the teens participated in the presentation. Overall, It was an amazing experience and I feel each teen learned the importance of being civically minded.     Jackie