Nebraska students give their solutions to global problems at Capitol Forum Day

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) – Students from all over Nebraska came together at the Capitol building Monday.

They started piling in around noon with curious faces of excitement and glee, many visiting for the first time, eager to learn more about how Nebraska’s government works.

It is the 25th year that Humanities Nebraska has put on the event, Capitol Forum Day, to get students engaged in government and to teach them that they have a voice.

“They are going to be our future leaders, there’s no doubt about that,” Executive Director Chris Sommerich said.

“I meet these students years later when they are doing important jobs in our community and our state,” he said. “It’s really important that they come together to learn about these things and to voice their own opinions. They do have a voice, and their voice matters.”

Students from across Nebraska came together for Capit0l Forum Day to learn about Nebraska’s government and deliver speeches on global issues.

Part of the program included students being broken up into groups and given a global topic of concern.

Topics ranged from climate change to nuclear proliferation and international trade. Students delivered plans of actions on how they felt the global issue should be resolved.

Zach Onken was excited to participate. His topic was ending wars and prioritizing justice and equality.

“It just requires all us as humans to do one thing, and that’s trusting people that we don’t trust, trusting our enemies,” he said. “We have to put down arms, and they have to put down their arms in turn. We’re bad at that, and so we’d rather continue with this long road that we are going down right now.”

One student said he wanted to participate in the program because he thought it would be a great opportunity to see where other students thought America should go in the future.

He said he learned a vital lesson: “That even when we have our differences, we have more similarities than anything. So it’s good to focus on those and get work done through that.”

Student Benjamin Harwood said the highlight of the day was learning more about the Legislature.

“It was really cool to get some of the insider knowledge on our Legislature in Nebraska and what bills are going on,” he said.