The following student report was submitted by Ambassador League Agent Joel M. during the 2009-2010 League.
Mission: Tactics - Final Report
This is the last report I will be doing for Ambassador League. My experience has been one crazy ride. I have learned so much, and even though it has been extremely hard, I had a tremendous time. I will admit, I wasn't too fond of the idea of having to do all of this work during the school year and all of my summer. My mom had to very strongly encourage me to do this. Now that I have finished, I'm extremely thankful that she did. I learned so much, grew in my faith, and had to go out of my comfort zone, which is always good. All in all, this was a tremendous experience and I would recommend this program to everyone that is able to participate.
When I started, I still didn't want to partake in the Ambassador League program, so I started extremely slow. I decided that I'd just work through one category at a time. So I determined that I'd get the book reports out of the way. I first read Roaring Lambs by Bob Briner. This book was actually quite good, and opened my eyes to many things I had never before realized. After that, my whole attitude changed about getting the assignments completed. The next book I read was Do Hard Things by Alex and Brett Harris. This book was rather enjoyable because it was challenging, yet written by kids my own age. I greatly enjoyed that book.
Next, I worked on the word studies. These were extremely good for me. I'm glad God set me right early with how I went about getting these assignments done, because once my heart was in the right spot, I learned so much from God. While I was working on these, I sent in a few letters to the editor. The subject of the three letters I sent were, in order: How evolution should not be taught as a fact, compulsory attendance age, and the lack of music venues in Lansing. Those were very enjoyable to write up and send in.
After this, I did the most nerve-wracking thing I've done the whole year. I job-shadowed and interviewed Representative Rick Jones. Although this assignment made me incredibly nervous beforehand, I enjoyed this one the most. Also, during the job shadowing, I observed a legislative session and two committee meetings.
The next assignments I worked on were the volunteer hours. I did my first ten hours with Student Statesmanship Institute, helping tem with their summer program. My next ten, which I just finished, were with Citizens for Traditional Values. I did some work on a candidate list, and some research on some different political districts. These were both very valuable for me to experience.
During the entire year of assignments, I've had my mentor meetings with Mr. Fil Schwartz. Mr. Schwartz was a tremendous help to me. He helped me stay on track and grow spiritually. I could not have done it without him.
This whole experience has been so incredibly challenging, but also so very rewarding. I grew in my faith with God, and was forced to do things I was uncomfortable with, which made me grow in my personality and what I was willing to do. I'm so very glad I participated in this, and I thank God he was with me through it all.
