Portage Northern High School students, and their advisors, Ms. Amber Dixon and Mr. Aaron Warfield attended the early Michigan Youth in Government (MYIG) conference in Lansing with over 750 high school students from Thursday, February 26-Sunday, March 1, 2026.
While in Lansing students worked in the Lansing Center, in the State Capitol building Senate and House Chambers, committee rooms, and office buildings introducing, debating, amending, lobbying, and voting on proposed legislative bills and National Issues proposals written by students from all over Michigan. As well as arguing a civil case of negligence in six rounds, for the Model Judiciary Program (MJP) as plaintiff & defense lawyers & witnesses.
Portage Northern's delegation of Michigan Youth in Government continued its successful tradition of over 20 years in a row of leadership and award winners at this year’s conference.
This year’s MJP team was the first ever to qualify for semi-finals and finished third in the state in the competitive division and Victoria Afiademanyo won Outstanding Witness.
Our leadership continued its distinguished history of success attending training a day early, including Chief Judge Danielle Kwon, Press Editor Aarav Choubrey, who was also elected to be Chief Editor for the 2026-27 MYIG year, & Committee Chair Dallen Ekola-Labra, who was also elected as an alternate for the summer’s Conference on National Affairs (CONA), ten days in DC & at Appalachian State in North Carolina.
Dallen Ekola-Labra also won his election to serve next year as Speaker of the House for the Early Conference. Jessi Mastin won her second award in two years, this year winning Outstanding National Issues Forum Proposal which was one of only a few to pass; Jessi was also selected as one of only fifteen students to attend CONA this summer.
Danielle Kwon & Dallen Ekola-Labra also had their legislative bills signed into law by our youth Governor. Congratulations to all our Portage Northern High School student delegates for their hard work all season!
Portage Northern’s delegation of Michigan Youth in Government will have open informational meetings for all grade levels, starting the Tuesday after testing week, Tuesday, April 14, and every Tuesday after including our election day May until our final meeting, May 12 in Ms. Dixon’s room, 2.132.
Students are invited to join us to learn more about how you can be part of this amazing experience and help us elect our next delegation leader & Youth Governor candidates. Visit www.myig.org and Ms. Dixon’s Google Classroom pbfdmyib about our organization.