Shay Flores is someone that I’ve had the pleasure of becoming great friends with this year and someone that I truely do look up to. Not only is she one of the sweetest people I’ve ever met she’s also one of the brightest and most driven college students I’ve gotten to know here at CofC. At just 19 years old, Shay is already very involved in politics and her local government, for which she is currently in the process of running for mayor in her hometown (she would be the youngest mayor in history).
Madeleine: How long have you been involved in politics?
Shay: Well both of my parents are in the military so my aunt lived with me from the time I was four to the time I was 17, my dad kept getting deployed and my mom worked so my aunt was kind of like a third parent to me. She played a huge role in raising me, but she also happened to be the biggest democrat you will ever meet in your life. She taught me everything I know about politics and made me want to learn. When I was 7 years old, John Kerry ran against George W. Bush and I remember being so invested in the entire process, staying up late to watch debates and crying because I couldn’t vote. I think that was the first time I really knew I wanted to be involved in politics some how, but in the sixth grade I moved to Chapin, South Carolina, and didn’t know anyone and I had this amazing math teacher who inspired me to get involved in student government which ended up being one of the best decisions I ever made.
From there on I spent the rest of my middle school and high school career doing student government and eventually being my high schools student body president my senior year and I absolutely loved the job and the responsibilities that came with it. My town luckily believed in me as well and helped me get an internship at the state house with the state senator in my area, Nikki Haley. I also had the priviledge of meeting congress man Joe Wilson, who I eventully was able to intern for in D.C. this past summer for. When I came back to CofC I was lucky enough to get an internship for Tim Scott.
M: Explain the internship you did in congress this past summer.
S: I was fortunate enough to be working in the office for Joe Wilson who is the representative for congressional district SC-02. My jobs were mostly simple office stuff like writing reports on bills or finding the adresses of people the congressman had taken pictures with so that we could send them a copy, or giving them tours of the US Capital. The best part was the openess I could go to any hearing I wanted I could meet and talk to anyone and I could ask as many questions as I wanted. I just got a front row seat to learn how everything works and see it first hand.
M: When did you first know that politics/government was what you wanted to do?
S: When I was in kindergarten my teacher had us fill out a little paper about what we wanted to be when we grew up and I wrote that I wanted to be president. I was four years old. I don’t necessarily want to be president now but I do want to be in public office. When I was a junior in high school I got to shadow the legislative liason to the governor and were in the balcony of the senate and I just remember thinking as I was watching them make these amendments to legislature that this is what I wanted to do. That I wanted to help people and this is exactly why God put me here, to help people on a large scale.
M: What do you believe will be the next step after college with pursuing your political career?
S: Well depending how my election goes for Mayor of Chapin my plan is to finish out my last two years of college at USC while in my first term of mayor, which is a part time job, and then go to law school while being mayor. After I’m 25 I plan to run for state senate for my area and pursue my career in politics.
M: Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
S: In ten years, hopefully, I will be sitting on the state senate, furthering the great reputation of South Carolina.
All photos courtesy of Shay Flores.