SPRING LAKE PARK, Minn. – (Feb. 6, 2015) – Three hundred fifty students from Spring Lake Park High School got the opportunity to have a Q and A with Minnesota’s top official this week. Governor Mark Dayton spent about 45 minutes taking questions from the students. The questions covered topics from transportation and education policy to selfie requests.
The event was arranged with the help of junior Aamira Redd who has been able to call Dayton her mentor since they first met when she was in eighth grade. Aamira, at the suggestion of her teacher Darrin Olmscheid, invited the Governor to come to her school. “She said I actually have his email so I said ‘throw it out there and see what happens’ it wasn’t more than a week and a half and she received an email back” said Olmscheid.
The visit was officially setup only a couple of weeks ago. Ever since the students heard that the Governor was coming the discussions in Mr. Olmscheid’s citizenship and government class have picked up. “Once they heard Dayton was coming suddenly their interest peaked even more in class.”
Several questions to the Governor were from students who have future political aspirations, Dayton told them to go to college and find their passion because any career can eventually lead to politics. “When I was in the U.S. Senate there were two physicians and one veterinarian…if you want to do something for its own sake because you are interested in it, you believe in it, you are passionate about it, then that is the thing to do” said Dayton.
The Governor told the students that he had aspirations of studying medicine before eventually going into teaching before his life in politics. Mr. Olmscheid and the Governor were both impressed by the quality and thoughtfulness of the questions brought by the students. “I don’t know if I could have generated some of those questions” said Olmscheid.
Aamira has dreams of being a journalist and credits her relationship with the Governor for giving her the confidence to know that she can accomplish anything with hard work. “[He told me] just to be confident…trust yourself” said Redd.
Mr. Olmscheid hopes that the students felt empowered after the short time they were able to spend with the Governor. “I am hoping some of the kids eyes were open, maybe willing to try some new things.”
And, Aamira hopes that he fellow classmates were inspired to dream big “I hope they take away, you can do what ever you want in your life…as long as you put your mind to it.”
