JOHNSON CITY (May 2023): Aiden Graybeal was drawn to politics from an early age.
“I’ve always been a weird political kid,” he said, “and there’s not a lot of opportunity to explore that in middle and elementary school. My parents don’t know anything about politics, they don’t care, so I had to do it all on my own. When I got to college, a friend said, ‘Hey, I’m going to do this TISL thing.’ Have you heard of that? I discovered that there was this whole world that I was missing out on—all these things that I had always watched and listened to that I now participate in.”
TISL – rhymes with “whistle” – is the Tennessee Intercollegiate State Legislature. this It provides politically minded college and university students across Tennessee with an education about state government and a channel to voice their opinions on state issues. Each fall, hundreds of students from two- and four-year institutions converge on the state capitol in Nashville to take on legislative, judicial, lobbying and media roles in a competitive four-day mock legislative session, modeled after from the Tennessee General Assembly. The ETSU TISL team took home “Best Delegation” honors in 2022, and several of its members were chosen to serve in key roles in 2023.
One of them is Graybeal, who is preparing to take on the role of Speaker of the House of Representatives. In this leadership role, the Johnson City native teaches the art of writing quality legislation and the basics of parliamentary procedure not only to younger members of the ETSU team, but to TISL participants as well from other institutions. And, he said, most of his job as a speaker is to learn about parliamentary procedure, or “parli-pro.”
“Luckily, I sleep with ‘Robert’s Rules of Order’ under my pillow,” he joked. “I didn’t know it existed until I got involved in TISL. We have bill books that contain all the different bills, and one of the pages is a guide to all the different moves you can make. I learned all the basic moves of “Robert’s Rules of Order” very quickly. From there, I ran with it and figured out all these little tricks. Being able to prepare for parli-pro is probably the first thing.”
Graybeal believes that TISL complements his classroom experiences as a political science teacher in a practical way.
“Especially with my career, there are a lot of things we talk about and read statistics about that can only be understood if you’ve done them,” he said. “At TISL, we are not identical to the General Assembly, but we come surprisingly close. We’re very good at it, and that teaches you a lot about human nature. This is something you can’t really teach, you just have to experience it. It teaches you things that they can’t teach you because they just don’t have the education about it. Studying the best way to convince a group to switch to your side is difficult. It is difficult to study the best way to be a lobbyist. You just have to do it yourself. You can study for years in law school to become a lawyer, but this experience will tell you very quickly whether you will do well or not. I started (at TISL) as a lawyer, and we failed in the first round. And then I went to the House of Representatives and won an award, so I feel really good about that. It just showed me that being a lawyer wasn’t really for me, but I love that.”
In addition to gaining hands-on legislative experience, Graybeal appreciates another benefit of participating in TISL. Participants have opportunities to interact with state officials, including Tennessee Secretary of State (and TISL alumnus) Tre Hargett, whose office sponsors the annual competition, and learn about the responsibilities of various state offices.
In addition to enjoying one-on-one time with Hargett, Graybeal and his teammates met with State Treasurer David H. Lillard Jr. and numerous senators and representatives from Tennessee, including Speaker of the House Cameron Sexton.
“It teaches you how to be politically engaged in your community,” Graybeal continued. “It also gives a lot of confidence. Partly because of TISL, I’ve gotten into the habit of cold calling people I have questions about. I’ve cold called the USDA just to ask if boneless chicken wings were wings or nuggets. And they answer. They are paid to; They have to. I’ve talked to the congresswoman of the United States Senate for a good half hour, just about her work. I didn’t expect to hear back from her, but she called me a day and a half later and said, ‘Hey, is that Aiden? Let’s talk.'”
In addition to a bachelor’s degree, Graybeal is concurrently pursuing an associate of science degree in agriculture at Northeast State Community College. She says that while she didn’t grow up on a farm, she lived next to farms in the Boones Creek community in Washington County, and her family often visited her great-uncle’s horse farm.
“I actually miss being in the country now that I live in the city,” Graybeal said. “I’m definitely more rural. I have a big interest in politics, obviously, and that’s a pretty hectic career, so I think having something a lot less hectic like farming would be good, where all you have to deal with is what you have to do. make it for that day, make sure no one dies and make sure the harvest comes in time.”
Graybeal would like to earn a master’s degree in agricultural economics and pursue a career in agricultural policy with the USDA.
