TeenPact!!!

Ah, TeenPact.

The vivid memories.

You may be wondering at this point, What is TeenPact? Well, in my opinion, the best camp/class I have ever been to! From their website (http://teenpact.com/about/), this is what TeenPact is all about.

“TeenPact is a dynamic, hands-on leadership school for Christian students. Our mission is to train youth to understand the political process, value their liberty, defend their Christian faith and engage the culture at a time in their lives when, typically, they do not care about such things.

We believe that God gives every young person a great spiritual capacity as well as a scriptural mandate to cultivate and use their talents – even before they are old enough to vote! TeenPact trains these young people to embrace their call as the next generation of leaders by giving them the tools, teaching and opportunities to do so.

Changing lives to change the world is more than a motto to us.

It’s what we do every day.

Each TeenPact program is marked by spiritual discipleship, student leadership, and a commitment to excellence. Our loyal base of donors, volunteers, and student leaders keep the vision alive and growing as we continue to expand nationally. Founded in 1994 by Tim Echols, TeenPact currently offers classes in 41 states and counting.”

It’s all true! I was able to learn so much about government, how government works, how a law is made and passed (it’s actually a really complicated process). Part of the homework was writing a bill about any topic we wanted. The possibilities were endless! Before the class, we had A TON of homework to do (probably the least exciting part of the whole thing). We were able to start off every day with devotions, and continue with prayer walks around the Texas Capitol every morning. We participated in this amazing group event called TeenPact Legislature, where we (all of the students) acted as the House of Representatives. Then we would question and vote on bills (the ones that everyone wrote for homework). It was so interesting to see how all the bills were passed or failed. In fact, my bill was read during TP Leg. I got to talk about my bill, but thankfully it was failed. Even I didn’t agree with my own bill! (It was about raising the legal driving age from 16 to 18.) [You can read my bill here] Then during lunch, we got split up into committees, where we discussed the bills before they were passed onto TP Leg. Every committee had a name, such as WAM (Ways and Means), GTO (Government Transparency Operations), or SA (State Affairs). My committee was GTO. The name didn’t really have much to do with the committee. Being in a committee was so much fun! We got to debate bills, have a chairman and clerk, and question bills (as if we were a mini TP Leg). We had speakers come talk to us. We also took quizzes (through the quizzes we are able to ⅓ of a Carnegie Unit for high school credit).

In my opinion, being at camp afterwards was the best part! We had frisbee, football, food, more games, and lots of fellowship! We got to spend time with the people we knew and didn’t know. I got closer to my already close friends, and I found out that the classmates I have been with for the past three years and I can sing together! Now we’re almost contemplating starting an a capella group..... I got to talk to so many new people!

TeenPact was an amazing experience! You should definitely check it out and maybe go for yourself!

If you’re interested in checking TeenPact out, you can visit their website at teenpact.com. Get pumped, because Nation Convention in Tennessee is happening next week! Check the website for details! (TeenPact Alumni that aren't able to go to TPNC can file for absentee voting, so Alumni can vote online [yay!].)

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