On Wednesday and Thursday, 36 Bainbridge High School juniors took part in Student Government Days with the City of Bainbridge. To take part in the program, the students must have at least a 90 average in their government class.

The students spent Wednesday touring different city facilities including the wastewater treatment plant, sewer treatment plant and public safety. Then on Thursday each student was paired with a city department head and they spent the day shadowing and learning about the department.

“We’ve been doing this for the last 30 years,” City Manager Chris Hobby said. “We always have a good group of young people. They have their own ideas and concepts of what city government should be.”

Hobby said that by brining in the students and showing them how the city works, they are getting them ready for when they are the voters making the decisions in town.

“These kids are future leaders,” Hobby said. “They’re future voters and the better we can educate kids in what city government does, it improves society.”

One of those future leaders is Diana Ambrocio, who was given the chance to serve as student mayor on Thursday. As part of her duties she led the mock city council meeting that the students held at the end of the program.

“I liked getting to experience some of the departments,” Ambrocio said. “I learned that being mayor is a leadership position that should be taken seriously and you have to think about the entire city not just yourself.”

Robert Hayes spent Thursday serving as the acting supervisor of the wastewater treatment plant, a position he described as a “crappy job” during the city council meeting.

“I learned that it’s actually a lot of science involved and they do a lot of different things,” Hayes said.

He said his favorite part was doing the sludge testing where he got to use a stick to test the depths of the solids in the tanks.

Jonathan Pyles and Jesus Juarez worked as deputies in the Marshals’ Office, an unheralded, but nevertheless important, department in city government.

“I like going around and actually doing what our officials did,” Pyles said. “I learned abut how the Marshals go around and enforce the codes. My favorite thing I did was going to the illegal trash dumping sites.”

Even Chris Hobby had a shadow as Grace Grimes was given the chance to work as the student city manager.

“Its interesting to give them a peek behind the curtain,” Hobby said. “We want to have fun and for it to be an enjoyable experience.”