By Jonathan Kane
Amy Cantrell, a rising senior at Wood River High School carrying a 3.9 grade point average and a member of National Honor Society, is all about finding solutions to global issues.
At Wood River, Cantrell is a member of the track team, the Water Club, Model United Nations, the Family Career Community Leaders of America and plays the violin in the orchestra. She also excelled in Advanced Placement Statistics, U.S. History, Language, Calculus A&B, Micro and Macro Economics, Psychology and Government.
But after taking U.S. History and being a part of the Model UN, she found her interests gravitating toward working for human rights and a possible future in government and politics.
“Model UN was a real eye-opener,” Cantrell said in an interview. “It was my second year doing it and I really loved being involved.” There were 20 members on the Wood River team. “You basically represent one country’s standpoint and then you collaborate with all the other countries to find a solution.
“At first it was just fun, but I have a passion for helping others and I started to develop my involvement from that standpoint.”
The conference took place in Berkeley, Calif., and Wood River played the role of Argentina.
“The issue we attacked was sex trafficking. Argentina has serious problems so we favored more regulation. We created a resolution and then you have to work with 200 other people in the room and everyone has a lot of ideas and there is so much economics involved. What I learned is that time is very valuable and that when you are caucusing. you have to use it very wisely.”
Cantrell is passionate on the subject.
“Basically, it’s a belief that everyone should be treated equally and that everyone should have access to basic human rights. I became interested by watching documentaries and did a lot of research on human rights and environmental topics.
“I learned that it’s really hard to make progress because there are so many cultural aspects and there are different ideals involved and some that we would consider inappropriate. It made me work harder to become more involved and to do whatever we can to make progress.”
In pursuit of her education, Cantrell attended a one-week government camp in Boise along with 300 other students.
“We basically created a state government with elections and parties and platforms. We split into groups and mine worked on ensuring equality and eliminating discrimination and to promote the protection of every person. It was passed by the general assembly.
“I learned a lot about government at the state level. It also gave me a lot of opportunities like going to the State Capitol and I got the chance to visit the Department of Environmental Quality and met with the directors for the whole day. It was just a great experience.”