When the 102nd Missouri General Assembly convenes Wednesday, Jan. 4, the group will bring together 34 members of the state Senate and 163 state House members, including newly-elected District 147 Rep. John Voss of Cape Girardeau.
Lawmakers are supported in their work by a multitude of staff -- and a newly-minted Southeast Missouri State University graduate will be among its ranks.
Luke Collins of Jackson, 21, who graduated Dec. 17 from SEMO, is the newest legislative aide in the office of GOP Sen. Holly Thompson Rehder of Scott City, representing District 27.
"(Luke's) main focus will be constituent services; however, his job is the front office, so it entails many things," said Thompson Rehder, in a text nessage to the Southeast Missourian.
"We had a legislative aide move on so it gave me an opportunity to interview Luke, whom I was already impressed with," she added, noting Collins will serve in her office in Jefferson City while the legislature is in session. When not in session, Collins will work out of office space at Codefi Works in Cape Girardeau's Marquette Tower, she said.
In remarks during a mid-December meeting of SEMO's Board of Governors immediately prior to commencement, Collins shared his views on university life and personal life goals at the invitation of SEMO President Carlos Vargas.
The Southeast Missourian asked Collins, who majored in political science and minored in history at SEMO, for his thoughts as he begins a career in state government.
"I was a presidential scholar at Southeast, which was a brand new program in the fall of 2019 during my first freshman semester, and was quite fortunate to be one of five students selected. I had gotten to know Dr. Vargas through the Presidential Ambassadors Program and had a lot of face time with him. Also, he had heard me lead the opening ceremonies for an event for local high school students and later the same day, I received an email from him inviting me to come by for a chat. Dr. Vargas asked me in that meeting to come and talk to the governors."
"I spent a lot of time in SEMO eSports, electronic sports, that is. What eSports is selling is community connections, friendship and a safe space for people to enjoy a passion previously looked down upon. We had 800 students in eSports -- not perhaps what one may think of as your typical fraternity guys or sorority girls. ESports attracted students who may have been disadvantaged in social spheres and gave them a platform to connect wtth like-minded people who had similar hobbies."
"I know this is a boilerplate response you may have heard a thousand times, but I really just enjoy service to others. Doing this in public service is something I fit well into. I think i have a couple of different skills and having grown up in southeast Missouri, I have a respect for the traditions and culture of this region. For me, the most noble thing to do is to choose to live a life serving people."
"Agriculture, which is Missouri's no. 1 economic contributor, is one; telecommunications is another, and also energy. Energy security has been a major issue since Jimmy Carter."
"For one example, if a Republican is perceived to have voted the wrong way just one time, he or she may be called a RINO -- a Republican in name only -- for the rest of their lives now. In an earlier day, this didn't happen. The public can very easily access everything an officeholder has ever voted on, which I think is very good and very important. More transparency is needed in politics. As a consequence, though, it does harden positions and makes it hard to compromise."
"Right now, I'd have to say no. I think I'd like to serve as a chief of staff or potentially go into the lobbying field. I think I'd think I'd like to stay in the legislative side of things, whether that be on the state level or perhaps someday in Congress."
"My mother. I've never met anybody who serves others more than her. She's devoted her entire life to me and my two sisters and she is amazing. I was the kid who didn't want to try anything and wanted to quit all my sports but she was the one who pushed me really, really hard. Sometimes it wasn't pretty but she got it in us that we needed to be people who cared about others."
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