Madison Rogers



Madison Rogers won’t be putting her feet up to recover after her GCSEs this summer – instead she’ll be heading off to London to spend the holidays working for Stoke-on-Trent North MP Joan Walley.
16-year-old Madison, who is a member of 1st Keele Madeley Rangers, has just been elected as a media representative for the West Midlands in the UK Youth Parliament and is well on her way to fulfilling her ambition to be a politician.
She has been a member of the UKYP since last October and is one of eight young people who represent Staffordshire.
“I got involved after one of my teachers approached me about it,” she said. “I had a two-week campaign where I visited eight schools and spoke to around 4,000 young people during their assemblies.”
Pupils across Staffordshire then voted via text, email or by using the ballot boxes placed in schools.
“I didn’t originally get in and I was devastated,” admitted Madison. “I was on a coach on a school trip to Austria and my mum and best friend had been to the count.”
But six months later, a representative stood down and Madison was asked to take up the place.
The Madeley High School student has her work cut out this year, taking 16 GCSEs and a BTEC in dance, but still finds time to be active for the youth of the county.
“I am working on a campaign at the moment called Get Around for a Pound, which is for young people aged 11 to 19 in Staffordshire to get cheap public transport,” she said.
“I am on the Youth Action Council which meets up with Staffordshire County Council on a regular basis and I am also working on an anti-bullying campaign and a campaign to try to get reduced gym fees for young people.”
Madison had her first taste of Westminster politics last year when she shadowed Ms Walley in Stoke as part of her work experience.
 “This year I am going back to work with her but this time it is in London," she said.
As part of her role as media rep, Madison will work with her West Midlands colleague to promote the work the UKYP does in the area.
Madison is also now looking forward to visiting Russia on a Midlands Region international trip in 2012. She said: "We're going over there to meet with a women's forum and help introduce the guiding movement.
"It's a regional trip and a unique opportunity working in the Volgograd region of Russia. In Russia they don't really understand the concept of guiding and the benefits of it, so my hope is that we can work with the forum and local government to show how beneficial guiding is and to help them understand the concept so it can be set up nationwide in Russia.
"We also want to show them it gives young women a space to learn new skills, make friends, be exposed to unique opportunities and get involved in the variety of activities guiding opens up to you."