We the People Bio - Danica Stott

My close friend was in We the People last year, and I continually heard stories from her about how exciting and fun it was to be a part of such a thing, and how grateful she was for the opportunity to gain that much knowledge in something that was so important. I didn’t really understand it at that time, but decided I wanted to try it anyway.

I decided to jump right in. The more and more I engrossed myself in the We the People program the more and more I wanted to learn. You know, you hear people say “The more you learn, the more you realize you don’t know.” And I can attest to that! The more time I spent researching, the more I became overwhelmed with how inadequate I seemed to be.

I am a member of Unit 6 which I feel has the most personally applicable topics to myself as a citizen. I have acquired so much knowledge in the topics of rights and obligations of a citizen and citizenship as a whole. I feel I have learned things in the past five months that I can use for the rest of my life. The most exciting thing for me to learn was that I have the power to affect the National government. Maybe not directly, but I do have the power and the right to go about voicing my opinion and changing mine and others’ standards of living.

I feel better prepared for college because of this specific program. I have learned that you can’t always expect to succeed the first time. While this has been a hard thing for me to learn, I now understand that sometimes you have to fail first in order to succeed the next time. I feel my study habits have become better; and my desire to do better in all things has been upped.

I have also further developed the skill of working with others as a cohesive unit. Throughout each of our lives, at one point or another, we all will have to work with others. Whether it be in college, in leadership positions or at jobs. I feel that the privilege of working with my 5 unit members has better prepared me for that. I believe it’s important to be respectful of others; to be willing to compromise; and to be willing to let go of differences to make things better as a whole.

All in all, I feel like the We the People program has benefited me tremendously. I have so enjoyed the opportunity to learn new things and meet new people. I’m so grateful for everybody who supports and loves us; it makes our job so much easier! Thank you!

On the first day of AP Government, I thought to myself, “What in the world am I doing here?” It took some time, but eventually I began to believe in myself a little more. I still sometimes wonder if I’m worthy to be a part of the program, but I know I am. And I know I’m an important asset to my unit, to my team, and more importantly to myself.

-Danica Stott