NEWS

Junior council member sees local government up close

Vicky Taylor
vtaylor@publicopinionnews.com

CHAMBERSBURG - A lot of interesting things have happened to 17-year-old Kennedee Waulk since she became interested in politics three years ago.

"I've learned so much about the way our government works, and how it functions," she says of her three years serving as a student senator in Harrisburg, and three weeks as a junior Chambersburg Borough Council member.

Waulk, a junior at Shalom Christian Academy, first became interested in government and politics while a student at the Pennsylvania Leadership Charter School, a private cyber charter school she attended while being home schooled prior to entering Shalom this year.

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The daughter of Valerie Miller and Cordell Waulk, she became involved in the student senator program at the state capitol, as a part of the school's government focus curriculum.

As a non-voting student senator, she sits in on legislative hearings and learns how both major and not-so-major legislation is created and moves through committees before being voted on by the full Senate.

"It is been a very interesting experience," she said. "I've learned a lot of stuff I would never could have learned out of a book."

She said watching legislation work its way through committees until it becomes a bill with a chance of becoming law is fascinating.

In September she was appointed as a junior non-voting member of Chambersburg's Borough Council, and with three meetings under her belt so far, she said that has been a fascinating experience also, but in a different way.

"Council is completely different (from the Senate experience)," she said. "But I love it, and I am learning so much about local government this way."

For instance, she said that at one recent meeting, she and the elected council members weighed a land development plan.

Allen Coffman, Borough Council President,  joins Kennedee Waulk after the student was given the oath of office on October 10, 2016,

"It was exciting to learn how the process works, and to know that if I were an elected official and could vote, I would be considering a plan that would let someone use that land."

As a junior council member, she has been struck by the amount of preliminary work the borough staff does on issues that are brought before council.

On the state level, the work of senators is much more rigorous than what she sees on council, she said, but she sees the work of council members as just as important to the local community as the work of the state legislature, which affects many more people.

It's not surprising that Waulk has found elective office and public service so intriguing.

She has been volunteering in her community since she was eight or nine years old.

"I volunteer as much as I can," she said. "I like to help people."

She both works and volunteers at the Capitol Theatre in downtown Chambersburg. At one time she was involved in amateur theater and was a member of the Chambersburg Community Theater ("back in the day when I wasn't so involved in politics").

Waulk isn't sure about a future in politics, although she thinks a political career would be interesting.

"It might be a long-term goal," she said. "But I would probably start on the local level, then eventually move up to a higher office."

VIcky Taylor, 717-262-4754