part with, “Get inspired, take
charge, and take ownership, of
the community that you live in.
But remember, with great power
comes great responsibility.”
-Taylor Truckey (Michigan)
Being a leader and showing
good citizenship can help you
live the life you want. During
week four of the 2008 Citizen-
ship Washington Focus experi-
ence, we had a special quest
speaker who helped to explain
this. Jaewon Ryu is a naturalized
citizen who came to this country
at the age of eight. He is cur-
rently serving as a Whitehouse
Fellow and also has a M.D. and a
L.D. Jaewon spoke about many
things during his speech but
when asked about the one thing
that he wanted delegates to walk
away with, he exclaimed, “Get
involved! Get engaged! We have
the freedom to become engaged!
In our government, in voting, in
your community!”
When Dr. Ryu was asked
about whether he valued himself
as a leader, he said that he only
wished to become a leader,
through being involved in issues
he is passionate about. One
main point of his keynote was
that, “Logical people can disagree
on how to solve problems, but
the real issue is people who do
not let their voices be heard.”
Amanda from South Dakota
agrees with this because she
believes that ”Some of our youth
use their freedom of speech to
complain instead of engaging
themselves and using their voices
to promote change. Although
Dr. Jaewon Ryu was not as lucky
as the rest of us to be a part of
4-H. he says that he is inspired by
us as 4-Hers, volunteers, and
most importantly as individuals
who are in a place of power and
a time of change. So, words to
Bleachers line the yard,
filled with people from all over
the U.S., including CWF partici-
pants. Blankets are sprawled out
on the lawn as even more Ameri-
cans gather to watch this heart-
warming performance that salutes
the soldiers who defend our free-
dom.
The program started
with the fife and drum corps,
similar to those of the Revolution-
ary War. They amazed all who
list