Last Wednesday, Oct. 25, four girls from Westside, along with 50 other high school girls from the Omaha Metro, had the opportunity to confer with elected women officials from the Nebraska political community at a conference sponsored by the League of Women Voters. This group included State Senators, Omaha City Council members, OPPD board members and representatives from the Nebraska Unicameral. Throughout the day with their help and advice, we were able to prepare a mock campaign based on a single issue: voter identification laws.

This experience provided us an opportunity to better understand government in the United States as well as in our communities in Nebraska. Additionally, hearing from women offered a unique perspective on the political system and how it would affect us as we continue our political and educational careers. Despite there only being four to our group from Westside, there was a lot of passion and intuition in the room.

During our campaign we learned about the problems dealing with voter identification laws. We wrote a speech about the issue, created a slogan and designed a poster. Two of our representatives from Westside won awards for their campaigns. This campaign helped us learn about how to work with others to be successful in a campaign.

In today’s political climate, being a woman in politics has a growing impact on society. It made it even cooler to be able to speak to women who are so well respected just within our own community. It was empowering to be able to hear from elected officials who have already been through the process and can offer insight to us as high schoolers.