Where Are They Now – Shantal Pai, 2014 Alum

Please join us in welcoming Center for Youth Voice alum, Shantal Pai, to our Alumni & Friends Network!

While attending The Academy for Sciences & Agriculture High School in Vadnais Heights, Shantal found her way to the Center for Youth Voice Programming, specifically through Youth in Government.

After participating in CYV programming from her sophomore year through high school graduation, Shantal went on to earn her Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Minnesota and then her law degree from the University of Minnesota Law School.

Since completing her law degree, Shantal has had an impressive career, working as a Student Research Assistant, Judicial Law Clerk, and now as a Senior Associate in the Energy Group at Fredrikson & Byron, P.A.

Now, let’s get to the interview and learn more about Shantal’s CYV journey:

How did you learn about the Center for Youth Voice?

In 2012, my sophomore year of high school, I got involved with Youth in Government and then went on to participate in Model United Nations.

How did you hear about the program?

My high school had a delegation run by Laura Nelson, who still runs that group today, and, sincerely, I was excited about spending a weekend at a hotel with other students and meeting other young people. From there, my interest in what the program had to offer grew!

What about that first experience with Youth in Government did you enjoy so much that it inspired you to deepen your involvement?

I had a ton of fun and got to meet other young people who had similar interests. There's also an astounding amount of autonomy for young people in the program. It really is a student-led experience.

The conference is truly a practice run, and for me, it was my first experience where I felt like I had a voice in a larger setting. I learned how to advocate for something I cared about, conduct research to explore the challenges, identify where my personal passion points lie on the topic, and frame those thoughts concisely to then discuss with others.

And I think that's particularly exciting about the program: it's one of the few times in life when you get to do that sincerely for your own interests. You get to advocate for something you really care about.

How have those experiences translated into life now?

Since those formative experiences, I've continued to use the same set of skills, but I'm doing it on behalf of clients or, you know, taking into account lots of other people's interests to arrive at the position. It was beneficial to have a first crack at those kinds of experiences in a safe setting, which gave me the confidence to do the same thing on a much larger scale, where the stakes are higher.

In the years after high school, how did those experiences from your involvement with the Center for Youth Voice stay with you?

I will say the experience of sharing spaces (like hotel rooms) with other people and learning how to interact with people from different backgrounds with unique preferences and interests was a basic social skill that I immediately relied on at college as I learned to adapt to that new world.

I remember the first few weeks of my time in the dorms feeling a little like the conference. Because you're constantly meeting new people, I think I developed a set of get-to-know-you questions when I met someone new, which helped frame how I approached living with roommates.

There were so many parts of my experiences with both Youth in Government and Model United Nations that served as practice runs for college. Those skills were certainly refined in college, but it was the start of developing some of those softer skills.

Are you still connected with the Center for Youth Voice today?

Yes, I am on the Center for Youth Voice Community Council, and before that, I was generally involved as a volunteer, but now I am more involved, co-leading a special initiative. Fellow council member Katie Driscoll and I ran a professional clothing drive, which has been a great project to see come to life, as I am looking for ways to deepen connections between the legal community and the Center for Youth Voice.

If you could go back in time and give high school you one piece of advice, what would it be?

I would say ask the people around you as many, if not more, questions than they ask you. I think the people who go to the Center for Youth Voice Programming are—across the board—interesting, and getting to know them is delightful. So the more you can do that, the more gratifying I think the program would be.

You can find Shantal on LinkedIn here.

Looking for more ways to connect? Join our Center for Youth Voice Alumni & Friends LinkedIn group here.

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