On Monday and Tuesday, Nancy Skinner, an assemblywomen for the 15th district, including Piedmont, in the California legislature, came and talked to civics students about lawmaking.

“At the end of each semester in my civic classes, I have every student write a bill that they want to be passed,“ Civics teacher Dave Keller said. “As part of that, I had her come in and give feedback to the students.”

Senior Ryan Nakamura liked the presentation, which included an in depth description of her job and how a law gets passed.

“She gave us feedback on some of our ideas for laws and gave us examples of laws that would get passed,” Nakamura said.

Keller said that the students participate in the “There ought’ to be a law” project, where students send proposed bills to an assembly person, who selects a few to present to the legislature.

“I give Skinner all of our bills, which students wrote, and she will pick the one she thinks is the best and submit it to the legislature,” Keller said.

Skinner, who first got involved in lawmaking as a student, said that she wants to promote political awareness in students.

“I was the first UC Berkeley student to be elected to the Berkeley City Council,” Skinner said. “No UC Berkeley student has been elected since, so I really like encouraging students to be active and thats why I really like coming to the classes, whether their high school classes or college classes.”

Skinner said that the purpose of the government is to serve people and that having high school students suggest laws to her, or even evaluate laws, helps make sure that the government is reflective of people’s wants, desires, and needs.

“I really do encourage students to get active when their young, to understand government, and to be participants,” Skinner said. “I also encourage students to be interns at my office or, to come to the capitol and shadow me.”

Keller agrees with Skinner in the fact that people need to be pushing themselves to become part of the democratic process.

“This is a democracy, and people should be involved in doing these basic things, such as making the rules by which we all live by,” Keller said. “If we truly live in a state of democracy, it would make sense that we should all impact the system in which these laws are created.”

For lawmaking, Skinner said that just having an idea is not enough.

“People need to research into the law and really delve into the legal process,” Skinner said. “Which is another reason why I love coming into classrooms and interacting with students.”

Keller said that Skinner, the budget committee chair for the assembly, is responsible for passing around twenty bills each year.

“It was great having her come and talk with students,” Keller said. “It was fortunate that right now is the end of the legislature, which is why she has free time to come.”

Keller said that due to the way the budget cycle works, having her come next semester would be much more difficult.

“I’d love to have her come, but, most likely, she will be too busy,” Keller said.