A Busy Summer

By Taylor McConnell

My summer was busy but fun! I started off my summer by going to Boys State. For those of you who do not know, Boys State is a program in which you get selected by your local American Legion Post to attend a program with others from around the state. There is also a Girls State program. You apply your junior year for the program and then attend the summer after your junior year. I highly recommend it for you juniors out there! We were divided into cities; I was in Patton. We were also divided into political parties, the Nationalists and the Federalists. You have to come up with your party’s platform and debate issues in a mock Congress. We also played sports as a city. Everything you did, both good and bad, either got your city points or demerits. At the end, the city with the most points won. My city came in second. During Boys State I got to meet many elected officials from my state of Virginia including the Governor. It was awesome to get to talk to them in small groups about what they think of our government, how hard it is to be a politician, and what legislation they hoped to bring up in the next state congressional session.

Another amazing opportunity for juniors out there is the Coast Guard Academy Summer Program, also called AIM. I spent a week up at the Coast Guard Academy learning what it was like to be a Coast Guard Academy Cadet. If any of you are looking at applying to any of the Academies, I would look at doing the summer programs. The Coast Guard Academy program taught me a lot, but at the same time was a lot of fun! Everyone is divided up into companies under the instruction of the upperclassmen who are currently at the Academy. I was in Charlie Company. It was extremely fast paced; a lot of running around, memorizing rates, and working out. My experience showed me that I would enjoy going to a service academy for college, so I have been working out ever since I came back home. I am running, doing sit-ups, push-ups, and pull-ups as a bare minimum workout every day.

I also went to the NASA INSPIRE Unconference in Florida. I really encourage anyone who did not go this past summer to try to go this summer. It was amazing! I got to meet some of the students I have been conversing with during the past year on the discussion boards, and I got to meet Mr. Gerard! Getting to take a tour of the Kennedy Space Center, and being able to participate in scenarios and demonstrations was definitely the highlight of my summer. I got to see so many cool things including my favorites, two space shuttles, Atlantis and Endeavour, and the Apollo 14 space capsule.

Throughout the summer I did volunteer work as well. I helped with my church’s Martha’s Table Ministry, which provides egg salad sandwiches to the hungry and homeless. I made hard boiled eggs to bring to the sandwich making days, and made sandwiches, and handed them out in downtown DC. I also participated in a Stop Hunger Now event in which we put together packages to be sent overseas to feed the hungry around the world. Our goal was to make 50,000 packages in five hours. My hour shift team made 20,000 packages in one hour! Now I am back in school and I miss summer!

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