Friday, August 16, 2019
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Legislator rallies local students over summer From page 1
some middle schoolers who will have to wait past 2024 to vote. Two young brothers from Syosset, 14-year-old Neil and 12-year old Nicholas Fernandes, are among the younger ones interning at Lafazan’s Plainview office this summer. Neil says his family moved into Syosset around the time his little brother was born. Nicholas currently attends South Woods Middle School. Neil is preparing to enter the ninth grade at Regis High School in Manhattan, and he feels ready for daily trips on the LIRR from the Syosset station. “I learned about Legislator Lafazan after seeing things posted on Facebook -- first my mom saw it and then I looked at it. I was impressed by the things the legislator has done, including a lot of really good things for our community. I just want to volunteer and help him continue doing the good work as he is re-elected (this fall). Josh is 25 years old and at age 18 he was elected to be on the Syosset Board of Education. He went to Cornell and Harvard too. We hope Josh continues to help people in this area and we like learning from his example,” Neil Fernandes said. Both boys say they are active on Facebook and with their school and neighborhood communities. But they decided on spending summer days at the Plainview Shopping Center. They are inspired by Lafazan’s great rise in the political sphere, but the Fernandes brothers look at their positions as students with many years left and say their focus is “keeping up with goals” in school and around Syosset. Neil says he will be eager to tell his peers in ninth grade at Regis High School, “I spent the summer helping someone achieve something greater in life. From Josh and all the other kids and teens here I have learned it is okay to continue and to face your goals headon. It is okay to take a step forward, even though you may not like it or if you were scared to do something.” His little brother says a key he has observed by being around Lafazan and the other 74 interns is “to start at a young age, so you can work on your problems in the present and finish getting over any hurdles earlier rather than later.”
Leadership Connects Jericho Students
Chase Serota is the campaign manager at Lafazan’s Plainview office. He is committed to the work, the principles and representing his hometown -- Jericho -- as Chase is a 2017 JHS graduate and a former JHS Student Council President. Starting later this month, Serota will be commuting from college -- UPenn in Philadelphia -- up to Plainview for his position with Lafazan’s team for three to four days a week. This summer
Student interns at Legislator Lafazan’s Plainview campaign office. Chase has hosted Town of Oyster Bay Democrats, local officials and Nassau County Executive Laura Curran as well a State Senator Jim Gaughran, listening in on the messages for the interns he oversees. On Wednesday August 7 the focus turned to hosting members of the media from WPIX-11 TV and News 12 to Newsday and other outlets. Chase Serota rediscovered his roots: before delivering his speech at the 2017 Jericho graduation ceremony, Chase was introduced as a “news junkie.” Seventeen-year-old Sophia Kim is entering her senior year at Jericho High School this September. Aside from work on the campaign, Kim is focusing on her college applications to the University of Michigan, Duke University and Cornell (Lafazan’s alma mater). But in spring of junior year, she learned about the chance to intern for the Lafazan campaign from an email blast sent by a JHS guidance counselor in winter time. Since then, she’s taken a great opportunity to learn on the campaign trail and at Jericho High School she has become co-student body president for the coming school year (2019-2020). By chance Kim first met Legislator Lafazan at a Jericho Board of Education meeting, and she followed up. “I had no idea what the internship for a County legislator was or how to pronounce his last name. I was skeptical because I am not sure if I am more leaning towards political science or premed in college. I just signed up and did an interview. I did research on the campaign and then I got the internship. When I saw him at our school board’s meeting giving out citations for little
girls from the district, like Girl Scouts, I thought that might be what a county legislator does. But it’s community engagement, outreach and helping others,” Kim said. From canvassing efforts, Kim observed how a few constituents along the campaign trails question whether or not at age 25 Lafazan has had enough experience in government. She says the overwhelming belief in him “as their candidate” starts with considering what Leg. Lafazan has done with passing bills in his first year. She also is encouraged to speak about local politics not having hard-line Democrat or Republican issues when community matters are involved. Through canvassing Sophia Kim has learned about and studied local efforts to curb airplane flight routes and the noise they’ve created over Long Island communities from the north shoe to the south shore. She learned about TVASNAC (the Town-Village Aircraft Safety and Noise Abatement Committee) as well as work from Senator Tom Suozzi and Queens Congresswoman Grace Meng on this effort in Washington. “In the beginning the canvassing role was more about ice breakers and how to talk and approach people. Now the intern role is to learn about local politics. My friend Drew Naiberg-Smith who is going into the position of student representative on the Jericho School Board is also very excited to learn as we hear about Josh’s position as a recent student who then served on his local board of education,” Kim said. Hemani Mehta is a 15-year-old enter-
ing her sophomore year at Jericho High School. Both of her parents are engineers, and Hemani has a 12-year-old younger brother. Her family has lived in Jericho since 2009. She says an opportunity to do something like the 75 interns in Legislator Lafazan’s office are doing over summer was unimaginable until Jericho High School posten an online announcement that caught her interest. “In Jericho Middle School we had a ‘National History Day’ theme which was a competition for kids doing research; you research themes such as ‘conflict and compromise’ or ‘breaking barriers.’ I really loved researching and doing a performance and through that I realized how much I loved researching. I looked through the announcement about this campaign and I saw that there’s a research and policy team. I wanted to learn and become well-versed in researching history and policy -- I had been following national-level politics for the last several years but that is very accessible for the public, but I had no idea about Nassau County or our local level. Local politics is not really out and talked about much, which is unfortunate because a lot of people should know about what goes on at their local level,” she said. When Hemani started her summer with Lafazan’s campaign she was entirely focused on topics to research, and she did not come in understanding Lafazan’s initiatives and positions on issues. Her own support for him was borne from interactions in the communities students have canvassed in See page 16