Although it wasn’t quite House of Cards, senior Kate Hawley got an insider look into politics after making a trip to Austin with her dad where she had the opportunity to meet with state representatives and voice her opinion at the state capitol. Hawley went for Collin County Days where representatives from every city have the opportunity to meet with state representatives and voice their opinions on bills currently in the process of being passed.

“I went with the Allen City Council and we met with our senator and our two representatives in the House,” Hawley said.

Hawley had the ability to go through her father.

“My dad is the Fire Chief of Allen and he is also kind of a political liaison and works with the City Council and inputs what is good for the fire department so I tagged along with him,” Hawley said.

Hawley was able to watch representatives talk about bills being passed.

“The first day there was like a panel of all the House Representatives and they talked about bills that were being passed currently and a lot of them were on transportation and there was a tax revenue cut and stuff like that,” Hawley said.

Hawley plans on pursuing a career in politics, however she is not sure of the specifics quite yet.

“I am not sure exactly what I want to do yet but I know I want to go into politics,” Hawley said. “I am not sure if I will run or not but I am planning on going to law school so I can have a background in understanding that. I like the legislative process the most so I want to help either create bills or be a representative and submit them on the floor.”

Because she wants to go into politics, Hawley’s dad thinks this opportunity could be useful to her and her future.

“I think this was a wonderful opportunity for Kate,” Bill Hawley said. “It is important for youth to know what is happening and get involved in government at a young age. This was great for Kate because i is what she wants to go into, so she got to have a glimpse of what she might be doing in the future and could potentially open doors for her.”

Getting involved in politics at an early age is important to having a more politically educated public.

“Our voting public does not vote does not vote as much as they probably should, but the more that we get students involved earlier in life, especially at the high school level, the more likely they are to be in public service the rest of their life or especially to vote when it comes to our democracy,” government teacher Jeff Roberts said. “Voting is what determines what happens in our government, so it’s very important that the earlier people get involved the better. She’s a great student and it was a great opportunity for her to be involved.”