With the understanding that Santa Clarita’s bright young minds are the city’s leaders of tomorrow, the Canyon Country Optimist Club is sending two students on the annual KHTS Sacramento Bus Trip.  

In the past, the trip has included Chamber of Commerce staff, the mayor, school board members, union representatives and nonprofit organizers. Each year, participants visit the Capitol building to get a first-hand look at what’s happening in Sacramento.  

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Now two ambitious students from Canyon High School will come along for the trip, which takes place March 21 and 22.  

“We thought immediately that it would be a wonderful experience for a couple of high school students to see the way our government works in Sacramento,” said Norb Moniz of the Optimist Club.  

Moniz said Canyon students Zane Patterson and Max Archuleta were selected by school counselors based on their grade point average and career goals.  

After graduating from high school, Patterson hopes to enter the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.  

“I’m going in open-minded,” he said. “I know I’m going to learn a lot.” 

Patterson added that he will study the leadership qualities of state officials while on the bus and in Sacramento.  

Now in its sixth year, this is the first time the trip will include local students.  

“Not only do we want a broader set of people than previous years,” said trip organizer and KHTS co-owner Carl Goldman, “but we want tomorrow’s set of leaders being exposed to what’s happening in our government.”