My name is Troy and I am a student at Smestow Academy and I have been asked to write about an achievement recently attained. Some may recognise the name but for those who do not I ran for something called Youth MP and it is as it sounds, I am a Youth Member of Parliament. The whole thing started before Christmas when we put our names forward.  We wrote applications and filmed ourselves being interviewed.  We were able to promote ourselves inside and outside of schools across the City. I found out in April during our induction meeting for Youth Council. It was amazing, I was elected with Nana who is another young person in Wolverhampton and our second youth MP. We took our photos with the Mayor and sat back down, it may sound underwhelming but in all honesty I couldn't comprehend I won. The competition was against 7 candidates including myself and all schools across Wolverhampton were allowed to vote. Hearing my name being called, I froze, I didn't know how to react and then it hit me. I won. I WON.  

My role as Youth MP hasn't been anything to talk about yet. I am currently sitting my GCSE’s but will be having a meeting about it soon. As a Youth MP I am expected represent the youth voices of Wolverhampton, but what I need to do is be a voice for the youth, my role before as a youth councillor was to deal with problems in our local area but now we can go more large scale, whilst nothing has happened to boast about, I can promise one thing. You all made the right choice. 

Also, being a member of Youth Council before I was a Youth MP was actually how I got into Youth Parliament. It isn't as large scale as Youth MP but it does help your local area so if anyone is interested, talk to your schools that's how I got into Youth Council.  Secondary schools and some colleges will be able to help you get into Youth Council, all that we ask is that if you join you actually participate don't just come onto the board because you think it'll be easy or you think it looks good on a CV, being a Youth Councillor genuinely has effects on our local communities so please join because you want to help others not yourself.