On today’s episode of Eye on the Valley, Matt Watson welcomes in two seniors from SCVi who are both students that are talking about their own projects. Bella Abarta and Sarah Mracek have been with SCVi since kindergarten, even though it’s not the norm. They talk about their projects and their experience with growing up being part of SCVi.

Bella Abarta tells us all about the 10th-grade project. It’s a personal project that you have to do to pass 10th grade. It can be on anything that they’re passionate about at the time, anything that their interested in and not something that they need to stay with for the rest of their life. Though it’s not a specific class, they do have to do little journals to write about their progress and at the end of the year, they will have to turn in an essay and have a presentation of the project. Bella shares with us what her project is and it’s a wonderful backpack full of helpful necessities for the Bridge to Home people. She uses fundraisers to help get the products needed for the Bridge to home and they mostly have to be lightly used. They have a fundraiser next Friday, March 3rd, where they’re hosting a trivia night.

Sarah Mracek, president of the council and student ambassador, is part of the IB program and is here to shed some light on the CAS project that is required of the students to do in the IB program. It’s similar to the personal project because it is about something you’re passionate about, except this one requires more thought and more intention of why it’s your passion. Sara’s particular project is based on a garden project at the school.

Afterward, Matt welcomes California State Senator Scott Wilk, who figured out he wanted to do political science at the age of 13. Scott shares with us his plans for the future where he plans to try to have a literacy program for young children, around 7-8 years old, to make sure they are literate by then because if they struggle at that age and aren’t literate, it’s known as a path downhill. Scott won a lifetime achievement award, 4th person to receive it.

Matt asks some questions we’ve all been curious about the answer to and that is regarding the gas bill’s outrageous price increase. Scott shares with us the reason why which is due to natural gas that is imported from other places since California is run almost like an island since a lot of it is imported. There have been some supply and demand issues and some may also be due to natural gas that has been shipped out to Europe. However, this does bring out the question that Matt asks, why is it that in other parts of the country, gas is at a more reasonable price range? Governor Newsom is calling a special session on gas prices and is possibly thinking of an increase in taxes to help with the gas prices (Wilk).

Subsequently, they discuss various current events regarding the government and local news. He first talks about a bill that was recently created in regard to prosecution. Scott’s prediction is that the bill may not get passed, and some offenders’ sentences are getting shortened. Then, it’s onto lighter topics, Scott recently presented a $5,000 grant to Mariposa Computer Science Magnet School. Additionally, he shares some stories regarding the Santa Clarita community and how he wants to help.

Lastly, Big T has his five minutes of fame as he hosts trivia for “Frogger” and Senator Scott Wilk!

Listen to the entire show here to learn more about SCVi programs’ specific passion projects and Senator Scott Wilk’s thoughts on current events and what he has planned for the future.