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Our guest speaker at our regular lunch meeting on May 7th was Carter Kruse. Carter is the current Student Body President at Tigard High School, and is also President of the Youth Advisory Council for the City of Tigard. He has spent much of his time at the high school dedicated to community and public service, and hopes to continue this as a career in public service. Carter was awarded a national scholarship which included an all-expense-paid trip to Washington DC for one week. Carter said he met incredible people and did amazing things!

Carter explained that he and 103 other students met many government officials, including President Obama! They also met and/or listened to the President of the World Bank (Dr. Jim Yong Kim), Supreme Court Justice Breyer, the Deputy Director of Defense, the Director of NASA, the Director of Cyber Security, Senators Joe Manchin, Corey Booker and Johnny Isakson, and several other government officials. He said they ate in the Thomas Jefferson room, visited George Washington’s tomb, the Museum of Newspapers (a.k.a. “Newseum”), and toured the NASA headquarters building, the Supreme Court building, and the National Archives building. They also visited the Senate Chambers, where they met with Senator Merkley. And they had a chance to tour many of the monuments in Washington DC, such as the monuments honoring the soldiers who fought in the Vietnam War, the Korean War, and World War II, and the monuments to Dr. Martin Luther King and Abraham Lincoln.

Carter shared some of his “take-away” lessons from this incredible trip. President Obama, for instance, said “Don’t worry about what you want to be, worry about what you want to do”. Senator Isakson said “Love People, Use Things. Not the other way around.” Senator Susan Collins said “if you are on the sidelines, you have no right to complain”. And Dr. Kim explained how he believes equal pay for women will help the economy grow.

Carter said the local program encourages young people like himself to go into public service, where they can make a difference in the lives of others. He said this was good training for what he hopes to be his career in public service, and was also an opportunity to start to build relationships with future political and public agency leaders. Carter said he plans to attend the U of O next fall.

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