Altamont Senior Asks Adults to Give Students Opportunities to Grow

(TRAVIS WHITT SPEAKS AT THURSDAY MORNING'S COMMUNITY CELEBRATION OF EXCELLENCE)

Travis Whitt has seen a lot in his first few years on Earth. He'd like to see other young people get the same opportunities, and encourages adults to make those opportunities available.

The Altamont Community High School senior was the keynote speaker at Thursday's Community Celebration of Excellence Breakfast. Whitt discussed his experiences as a US Senate page, his work on the Student Advisory Council of the Illinois State Board of Education, and his time in the Effingham County CEO Class.

Whitt, the son of Alan and Karen Whitt, has a love for politics and has established a blog, "acivilopinion", as his CEO business. During his time as a Senate page, he had considerable contact with past and current presidential candidates Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and Bernie Sanders. He said every time Sanders arrived at the Senate chambers, he had the same request: "Two waters with ice filled to the brink". 

Whitt said education has been a key to his journey, saying early education is "the foundation", while high school "is where the building is put together". He said a high school teacher told him, "you should get out of school". He thought it an odd thing for a teacher to say at the time, but his experiences in Washington, in Springfield and in CEO have showed it to be good advice. The out-of-classroom experiences, he said, have been as beneficial, or more, than his time in the classroom.

Whitt also suggested to the adults in the audience that they should "work to insure students have opportunities at leadership" and "if you want active involvement" from young people throughout their lives, "get students involved at a young age".

Here's our Greg Sapp's conversation with Travis Whitt after the presentation...

Young people were in charge of Thursday's program, provided musical entertainment, and even served the breakfast.

(VERSATECH CO-OWNER AND BESI AWARD RECIPIENT JOE FORBES)

There was one matter of "adult" business, as Versatech Co-Owner Joe Forbes was recognized as the 2016 BESI Award recipient. The Business Ethics and Social Involvement Award is presented by East Central Illinois Development Corporation. A formal recognition of all of the ECIDC award recipients will be held May 19 in Effingham.