Step up
Four SMCHS students attend conference in Washington D.C. to enrich their drug education.
On Feb. 1, four SMCHS students arrived in a very rainy Washington D.C. to attend a series of conferences called the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America (CADCA).
CADCA hosts a number of groups from around the world that invites students to discuss drug prevention. Representing the Next Step club here at SMCHS, juniors McKenna Malasavage, Madison Johnson, Sarah Holland and senior Danny Juergens attended this conference.
“Both morning there were large plenary sessions with most of the 2000 plus people in attendance, and afterwards there were three time slots for smaller, more personal sessions,” Juergens said. “Speakers ranged from attorneys to directors of large scale organizations.”
Because the Next Step club works to help teach middle schoolers about the effects of, CADCA is a significant experience for the club as it not only provides a deeper look into the effects of drugs, but allows the students to discuss ways for drug prevention.
“I learned so much about drug use in different communities and how people try preventing it all throughout the U.S.,” Malasavage said. “Not only did I learn about the effects and statistics in the conferences, but talking to people from all around the nation really broadened our perspectives on how much of an issue drug use really is.”
CADCA was organized into multiple conferences and sessions, giving students the option to choose which ones they wanted to attend.
“Some that I went to were about marijuana, prescription drugs and e-cigarettes,” Malasavage said. “I liked how we had the option of which conference we wanted to go to because we were able to choose a topic that we are deeply affected by and feel strongly about.”
For the juniors going on the trip, this was their first time attending CADCA. The newbies weren’t really sure what to expect.
“This was my first time on the trip, but I had heard it was a lot of fun,” Holland said. “The conferences were really interesting and unlike anything I have ever been to, and I made so many new friends.”
Juergens went on the trip last year. Her passion for the club allowed her to the opportunity to work with Drug Use is Life Abuse (DUILA), and she was able to pursue this work throughout the year.
“I was talking to the director of DUILA and essentially talked her into letting me intern at the Sheriff’s Department for the summer,” Juergens said. “I also started serving on the board of directors for DUILA once I came back from D.C. and when the time came to reapply for the conference there wasn’t really any question that I would go.”
Because Juergens went last year and has dedicated so much of her time to drug education along with her work with DUILA, her experience at CADCA was different this time around.
“I already had the preliminary, basic info that I didn’t really know when I went last year and I was able to understand the presentations on a deeper level because I wasn’t stuck on trying to figure out what drugs were at the chemical level, etcetera,” Juergens said. “Socially, being close to all of the adults going made it a lot more fun because I was more comfortable.”
The conferences not only hosted SMCHS students, but welcomed students from all over the world.
“It was great to sit and talk to everyone from different states about how drug use affects their communities differently than ours,” Malasavage said. “It was eye-opening to hear other people’s stories about how they are being affected and how they are trying to put a stop to it.”
Although the main point of the trip was to attend the conference, the SMCHS students made sure to check out the sights. So while the rest of the student body spent the week in class, these four girls were busy exploring Washington D.C.
“We went to several monuments, Arlington National Cemetery and the DEA museum,” Holland said. “It was pouring rain so everything was really foggy. The pictures turned out really cool.”
All four girls were close to strangers before the trip, but spending four days, four nights, two airplane rides and a hotel room together allowed them to get to know each other better.
“I knew the other SM students from Next Step, but I am definitely closer with them now because we have so many memories from our trip,” Holland said. “I also made new friends from other high schools in Orange County who are also involved in Next Step.”
The girls had a memorable experience getting to know each other and participate in the conference, so although the weather was stormy, the memories were everything but that.
“When we were taking pictures in front of the frozen-over Potomac River, one of the men from the Sheriff’s Department who came with us fell into the freezing cold water,” Malasavage said. “That was probably the one moment none of us will ever forget.”
