Kentucky House Democratic Women’s Caucus reads Sofia Valdez: Future Prez for young students

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WTVQ) – Joining many of their elected colleagues from around the country, the 17 members of the Kentucky House Democratic Women’s Caucus have recorded a reading of Sofia Valdez: Future Prez, which will be shown this spring to young elementary school students across the commonwealth.

The legislators will be donating copies of the book to schools in their House districts.

“The goal of this program is to boost these students’ interest in government and to encourage them to develop their leadership skills, because we should all have a voice when it comes to making our communities better,” House Democratic Caucus Floor Leader Joni Jenkins said.  “This book was sent to every woman in the United States who serves in Congress or a state legislature or who is a statewide official.  I’m proud the women in our caucus chose to take part in this reading, and it means so much that this collective effort will be widely available to students and anyone else who, like us, finds the lessons in this book to be so important.”

State Rep. Lisa Willner, who chairs the Kentucky House Democratic Women’s Caucus, said “Sofia Valdez: Future Prez is an ideal book for this project, because it shows how a young student can have a profound impact.  Our students can and should play an even larger role in deciding the direction our government takes, because they are the ones most affected by these decisions over the long term, and they are the ones who will be our leaders in the coming decades.”

Sofia Valdez, Future Prez was written by Andrea Beaty with illustrations by David Roberts, and it teaches children how to work with public institutions to solve a community problem, highlights girls in public leadership and teaches elementary-age children the value of courage and civic engagement.

The book, published by Abrams Books, was made available to women lawmakers by Teach a Girl to Lead®, a program of the non-partisan Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP), a unit of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University. Support for distributing the book comes from the Hess Foundation, The Honorable Constance Hess Williams, and Comcast NBCUniversal.

CAWP created Teach a Girl to Lead® to inspire girls and young women to follow in the footsteps of women leaders, past and present. CAWP officials said “making women’s political leadership visible to America’s youth will help both boys and girls grow up with more inclusive ideas about who can lead.”

A link to the video featuring the Kentucky House Democratic Women’s Caucus can be seen here: https://youtu.be/bczkgZ_Iatk

A photo montage of the 17 legislators who took part is attached.  They are, starting in the top left corner and going clockwise: State Representatives Attica Scott, Joni Jenkins, Ruth Ann Palumbo, Mary Lou Marzian, McKenzie Cantrell, Nima Kulkarni, Tina Bojanowski, Pamela Stevenson, Rachel Roberts, Angie Hatton, Susan Westrom, Lisa Willner, Josie Raymond, Kelly Flood, Patti Minter, Cherlynn Stevenson, and Ashley Tackett Laferty.