Next year, our school’s senate will be spearheaded by the ever-worthy rising seniors Abbie Bouse and Colby Ting. I sat down with them to hear more about their views, both serious and funny, reflecting the dynamic pairing they are. Read on to get to know the senate co-presidents of 2024!
To start, I asked them what activities they participate in at YHS. Colby is such an involved student that he inquired how long of a list we wanted, managing to ultimately shorten his commitments down to his favorites. Colby is on the cross country, indoor, and outdoor track teams, as well as a leader of the Interact Club. He is also a student liaison on the school committee, which he says “is always a blast,” Abbie is also involved in a wide variety of activities and is similarly a three-sport athlete, competing in soccer, indoor and outdoor track. She is also a member of the Global Action club, and a leader of club Olas, an organization that helps raise money for women in Guatemala.
Continuing on to senate-specific questions, I asked the duo what their favorite part of senate is. Abbie said she enjoys getting to work with a variety of students as well as “working together to create policies that represent the entire school.” Colby agreed, stating his favorite part is “hearing all of the student voices and making a solution that works for everyone.”
Although Colby and Abbie will be working together a lot next year, they have different goals they wish to accomplish during their time as Co-Presidents. Colby hopes to rewrite the Senate Constitution, as he thinks that “is the key thing going forward as Senate, mostly because it hasn't been updated in ten years.” He explained because it is so old, “there’s a lot of stuff [that needs to be added], such as an environmental committee that will really improve our school and allows us to hear more voices in the school. Both revealed amazing top priorities that we look forward to seeing in the coming year.
Colby and Abbie both have exciting plans for their last summer of high school. Abbie hopes to relax and is looking forward to spending time with her extended family at their summer lake house. As soon as school is over, Colby will be off to UMaine Orono where he’ll do electrical engineering, “work[ing] with wireless communication and sensors,” and hopes to be involved with SONAR technology in submarines.
Aside from their Senate goals next year, Abbie and Colby have exciting Senior Year bucket list items as well. Abbie really wants to go skydiving when she turns eighteen, a joint celebration of graduation, and Colby plans to go white water rafting at Colby College. Two adventurous co-presidents.
By accident, we stumbled upon a fun fact about Colby - the reason he wears a Colby College sweatshirt is not because he is interested in attending the school (although he reassures us that it is “a cool place”) but because it serves as a nametag at family gatherings. “I bought the sweatshirt so that when I go to family gatherings I can be like ‘my name is’ and then they can just read my name” Intrigued, we questioned Colby further, curious how so many family members could forget who he was: “our family gets bigger each year, for example, three thanksgivings ago my family could fit one floor of this church that we rent out for the occasion but now we need to rent out two floors to fit everyone”. Colby estimates his Thanksgiving gatherings are now attended by 120 people. In contrast, Abbie is not only an only child but has no first cousins.
Wacky interview questions always provide humor and show personality, and the two I asked were no exception. When questioned about what Colby thought of garden gnomes, he explained that his mother was a big fan of them. “She kind of has an obsession with garden gnomes, she has one for every single season.” Colby on the other hand preferred to stay “bipartial” on them, stating that he “doesn’t really care whether garden gnomes exist or not.” He went on to call them a “staple of the 1950s.” Ouch. Sorry garden gnomes! Abbie preferred to stay elusive on the subject, stating “I don’t have much experience with them, but I’ve heard some interesting stories.”
At last, it was time for the final and most important question inspired by Colby’s off-the-record statements: What is the best way to eat a burrito? Abbie explained that she likes to keep it wrapped in foil, so “it doesn’t get messy or all over your shirt.” As someone “who spills a lot” she recommends this trick. Colby was very opinionated on this topic and proceeded to give our Spanish class a demonstration using his phone as a burrito: “You gotta get a good spiral pattern, you gotta get all the parts the burrito as you are going down.” Despite meeting some opposition Colby persisted, stating “You can only bite so much of a burrito at once.” He’s got a point there! Both our co-presidents have amazing points about burrito eating so we can only assume they have even better points to make to our school’s senate and we look forward to hearing them next year.
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