H-B Woodlawn Student Elected 2016 Youth Governor: April 2015

H-B Woodlawn junior Salome Gongadze was elected Youth Governor for the 2016 Virginia YMCA Model General Assembly at the 2015 Virginia Model General Assembly (MGA) held in Richmond earlier in April.

YMCA-Arlington sponsors MGA at the Arlington Career Center, H-B Woodlawn, Wakefield and Yorktown high schools through funding provided by The Boeing company, Knights of Columbus and the Columbus Club. MGA is widely considered the finest citizenship-training program in Virginia.

This year 525 students from across Virginia participated in the three-day session April 16-18 at the State Capitol. Students served as senators, delegates, officers, lobbyists, reporters, and underclassmen legislators. General Assembly members, state agency personnel, and lobbyists assisted them as they learned about Virginia’s legislative process.

Gongadze will represent Virginia at the National Youth Governors Conference in Washington, D.C. and will meet with Governor Terry McAuliffe as well as members of the General Assembly in January 2016. She will address the Opening Joint Session of the 69th Model General Assembly in April 2016 at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, adjacent to Capitol Square and will decide which 2016 MGA student bills will be signed into MGA laws.