Journalist: Philip Hall (ORU)
Representative Kaylee Macy is a student at Oklahoma State University, with a double major in Ag communications and Agribusiness. She seems very much inspired by her childhood, as she was affected by the Endangered species act. This act, she said, caused much strife in her community. Water shortages and crop failures of 2015 and 2016, caused big issues. She was inspired by her father’s lobbying for the Oregon potato commission, a commission focusing on the growing of potatoes.
“In my lifetime, I’ve watched the community go from green and thriving to sad and depressed,” she states. She states that this experience, along with going along with her father to lobby, really made her care about agriculture and business. Not only that, when she came to Oklahoma, this club seemed to really click with her on top of her other club commitments. The people in the OSU delegation have become really good friends.
Her other club is very Important to her as well. The Ferguson College of Agriculture, where she has many people similar to her own upbringing. Mostly around agriculture and farmer kids. OIL is definitely not close to her usual surroundings.
She hopes to use her experiences in both OIL and in her double major to help towns and places like her own. By knowing, lobbying, and learning about how the government works, she wants to use these skills throughout her life.
As she has been here, she has been very busy during caucus, questions, and researching during all of these bills. As a member of OSU, one of the larger delegations, it is a very competitive club. These people skills she is learning is going to help her a lot in her future career choices, and all her passions and activism. Ultimately, Macy aims to turn her experiences into meaningful action, using what she learns today to strengthen the rural communities she grew up fighting for.