Houston Edwards spent the day with Senator Akshar learning what it takes to be a State Senator. (Submitted Photo)

NORWICH – Norwich High School junior, Houston Edwards, recently spent the day in Albany shadowing Senator Fred Akshar.

Edwards had first met Akshar while volunteering at community events. He said he started following the Senator on social media sites such as Facebook and Instagram. After seeing photos of the things the Senator was doing at the Capital and in the community, Edwards reached out to see if he could see those things first hand.

"I've always had an interest in politics, and how the government works," said Edwards

Originally, Edwards requested to shadow Akshar while he was in the Chenango County area. But he was excited to learn that Akshar felt it would be more beneficial for him to come to the capital and sit in on a legislature meeting.

"I was like wow, because I never thought that you could go and do that and watch. Because you don't see on the news, even like for the United States (legislature meetings), you don't see like random people in there just watching. I was getting more excited as the days went by and leading up to it," said Edwards.