The Daily Delegate

By Jamie Rigor

In Youth & Government’s 2026 Sacramento Conference, many discussions have been in regards to what is going on in today’s political climate, such as war, immigration, and voting. During the conference, we interviewed four delegates in order to understand why these topics are current pressing matters, and why it is important to address them.

Sajan Singh (SRV/Valle Lobo)

Sajan Singh is the Director of Intergovernmental Affairs. He credits his parents for his passion in civic engagement. Singh’s mother teaches U.S. government and history, and his father taught him about the importance of being open-minded towards political matters.

“For me, being civically engaged is understanding what’s going on in the world right now, and not just having one opinion or one perspective,” Singh said. “But really understanding both sides to something, and then doing your part in having a reason or a side to believe in.”

In addition, Singh believes that social media creators are the biggest influencers towards today’s youth.

“The youth is really influenced by social media and by big creators saying one side or the other. It’s important for us to research both sides and understand what’s actually going on,” Singh said.

Chiagozie Offokansi and Quinn Weatherford (DaVinci)

Chiagozie Offokansi encourages understanding candidates, their goals, and what they want to do in order to fix issues. A few years ago, Offokansi advocated for pre-registering to vote at his high school. In the future, he aims to be able to conversate and teach future generations about universal issues. Offokansi is proud to be included in the demographic of teenagers who are passionate about topics regarding politics and government.

“We’re going to be the future of this country, and if we don’t understand everything that goes on around us, it will be hard for the up and coming years to go by,” Offokansi said.

Quinn Weatherford believes civic engagement is being informed on candidates and forming individual opinions on them. His background consists of a father who’s a former history and economics teacher. Previously, he has walked around a neighborhood, passed out flyers, and informed those people on how to vote, the candidates, and advocated for a specific candidate. Weatherford recalls his desire to continue in engaging activities likewise. 

“I think it’s cool to see that so many other youth care because a lot of times at school, and just in general in life, it’s easy to think, ‘Oh, most youth don’t know what’s going on,” Weatherford said. “It’s really cool to go in Y&G and be like ‘No, there’s hundreds of other people like me, all across the state, across different delegations that also really care and are really passionate about [poltics].”

Meghan Lee (SRV/Valle Lobo)

Meghan Lee advocates that to be civically engaged is to talk and engage with one’s community in order to help each other be the best versions of themselves as possible. Lee is a part of several volunteer groups, such as She’s All That, where young girls who are going into middle school can gain help and advice from older girls. Lee’s inspiration for civic engagement are friends, peers, and delegates within the program. 

“When things are kind of going bad, I think if we can’t rely on a strong government, I think we need to rely on each other,” Lee said.

From the four interviewed, the sense at the 2026 Y&G Sacramento Conference is focused towards addressing issues that we find within our government. Even if they aren’t targeted towards us, it affects us all no matter what. At the end of the day, we are responsible for creating a future we all want to live in.