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The Massachusetts Students Accepting Responsibility (MassSTAR) Citizen Conference has been an annual event for the past 25 years. It is run by the Massachusetts Youth Leadership Foundation, a non-profit organization that seeks to recognize, teach and empower sophomores and to value their potential as future leaders.

Attleboro High School guidance councilors Bob Feinberg and Karen Kennedy made applications available to all sophomores. The application included an essay about being a good citizen. Then, guidance councilors chose a nominee to represent Attleboro High School. That student is Joseph Lazzerini.

"I believe Joey is very capable to attend the conference and I know that he will make Attleboro High School proud when he represents us," said Kennedy.

Lazzerini recently founded the Attleboro High School Young Democratic Association and is the Youth Coordinator for Bill Bowles' campaign for state representative. He was also the Attleboro Area Youth Coordinator for the Hillary Clinton for President campaign during the primaries.

Lazzerini founded of the nonprofit organization "Kids Are People Too!" The organization is dedicated to raising money for children with cancer and providing young people with the opportunity to become more involved. The group has already donated more than $10,000 to Hasboro Children's Hospital in Providence. There were also two successful summer clean-ups in Attleboro. Each year sophomores from all over Massachusetts are chosen to represent their high schools. This year the conference is to be held at Lasell College in Newton from Friday, May 30 to Sunday, June 1. The conference comes at no cost to the student or the school. AHS is participating this year.

Just one day after the application was submitted, Lazzerini received a notice stating that he had been chosen to attend the conference. "I was pumped," he said.

During the conference, Lazzerini will interact with leaders from fields such as business, government, health, art and education. Activities will address the many aspects of changing the world and also confronting citizens and future leaders.

"It feels amazing to know that the administration has chosen me to represent the high school at the conference," said Lazzerini.

Lazzerini writes for AHS's paper the Eagle's Eye and plans to run for the Attleboro City Council in 2009.

"The process of running for City Council has only just begun and I expect that some constituents may be discouraged by my age," he said. "Looks and age can be very deceiving, so I encourage the citizens of Attleboro to contact me directly with any questions they find important to them."

Kennedy said she believes Lazzerini will make a great city councilor. "I'm very proud of him for being so brave and I think Attleboro will be lucky if he is elected," she said.