The League of Women Voters Larchmont-Mamaroneck selected Mamaroneck High School Senior Caitlin Solis as our student representative to attend the 2025 Students Inside Albany program from May 18-21. Here is Caitlin’s letter of thanks to the League recounting her experience:
Hi Beth [LWV-LM Co-President Beth Radow],
I wanted to thank you and the League of Women Voters of Larchmont/Mamaroneck for the opportunity to attend the Students Inside Albany conference. It was an incredibly valuable experience!
I found the commitment of the Senators and Assemblymembers to their line of work very powerful. After witnessing their hectic schedules firsthand, it was amazing that they were so receptive to having high school students follow them around for the day! I had the opportunity to shadow Assemblymember Steve Otis and Senator Bill Weber. I found that each of them was equally as invested in ensuring the students shadowing them had an enjoyable experience and understood everything that was going on.
From left to right: Kyra Mulraine, Caitlin Solis, Avery Smith and Assemblymember Steve Otis
Despite observing their conflicting priorities after following them to different committee meetings, I was pleasantly surprised by the tight-knit community that is the state government. In the committee meetings, there were debates (naturally), but everyone was ultimately respectful and asking sincere questions of the opposing party. It could be because they are forced to work in offices down the hall from each other every day, but it truly seemed like they cared about hearing multiple perspectives regardless of what their party was. Since government at the federal level is so polarized these days, it was refreshing to see that some of that animosity hadn’t made its way to the states.
In addition to gaining a closer look into how the state government works, I was so excited to learn from other students who were equally as invested in the future of our country. There were many inspired students on the trip who were genuinely interested in becoming more educated voters, which is always nice to see!
Thanks again for this wonderful experience!
Best,
Caitlin