Madison Reporter

Recent Middleton High School graduate Akshay Manna and rising senior Alex Bo participated as panelists at the State Legislative Leaders Foundation’s Conference of State Majority Leaders in July. They were accompanied by social studies teachers Megan Sipiorski and Jeff Hayward, who lead the school’s Legislative Semester program.

The Legislative Semester program uses simulation-based experiential learning to help students understand how government functions and the role citizens play in shaping public policy. The conference gathered 20 majority leaders from state senates and assemblies across the country, along with students involved in their schools’ Legislative Semester programs, legislative staff, and industry representatives.

During the student panel, Manna and Bo discussed topics such as politics, public trust, youth civic engagement, and their own political interests. They addressed questions about voter turnout, civil discourse, and provided advice to legislators.

Responding to a question on future political participation, Manna said: “I'll definitely be voting. For me that is the baseline of living in a democracy, you have to participate, and it doesn't work if nobody participates. In terms of running for public office I think what this class really did for me was opened my eyes to the importance of local office. A lot of times in the news, you'll see races for president and all these national offices and they don't pay attention to what's going on on the local level, even though really local government is affecting your day-to-day life so much more than your federal government is.”

Kate Ullman, executive director of Legislative Semester—the nonprofit organization that organized the conference—expressed appreciation for Middleton High School’s teaching team: “A huge thank you to the government teaching team at Middleton who have provided such dedication and leadership to developing our next generation of citizens, voters, and leaders,” Ullman said.

The Legislative Semester initiative aims to prepare young people for civic engagement by building skills in civil dialogue, information literacy, and critical reasoning.