"Everybody having a good day?" Beshear asked, popping his head into a government class at Henry Clay High School, and receiving a warm welcome.
The governor toured two classes and got a chance to reminisce, joke around, and even say hello to a teacher who was there in 1996, when Beshear graduated. He also couldn’t resist taking some questions — which ranged from the challenges of being governor to whether he remembered the moment he decided he wanted to take on the role.
RIGHT NOW: @GovAndyBeshear is welcomed to his old high school, Henry Clay in Lexington, to receive a new alumni award. pic.twitter.com/NWG1f2AYxK
— WUKY (@wuky) May 24, 2024
Beshear reliably steered the conversation back around to his high school experience and how its informed his public education-centric platforms.
"The teachers at Henry Clay invested in me," he said. "I'm a Fayette County grad from elementary school all the way through."
Following the short tour down memory lane, it was award time.
"We are officially naming the award the Andy Beshear Distinguished Alumni Award for all future recipients," Fayette school board chair Tyler Murphy said before turning over the mic.
In his speech to a room of attentive students, Beshear stressed the issue of mental health and touched on the challenges of being a high schooler in the age of social media – urging them to be there for each other and using his own evolution as an example of how much a good education experience can set the course for a person.
"Fayette County Public Schools helped mold me from somebody who was shy into now somebody who doesn't care about anybody's opinion on Twitter," he mused, emphasizing, "especially anybody's opinion on Twitter."
And if there was any question whether today’s high school students would be excited about a visit from the governor, that was answered when the Henry Clay crowd flocked to the front for a selfie with Beshear.
