Northeastern Pennsylvania’s Home Page “Civics, government and politics have all been integral components of my life.
From academics to extracurricular activities I have aimed to be a contributing citizen in every capacity possible,” Lisman said. “I have embraced my love of civics and developed this love into a knowledge and personality trait that characterizes me. To serve is a sacred duty of all Americans we must each engage the world as citizens and put country before self.” Lisman probably knows more about the world than many kids his age, thanks to an inherent interest in politics and his involvement in forensics. Later, a somewhat unwilling Lisman was sent to forensics practice and quickly saw the tie-in to politics. “I was always very argumentative and had definite opinions,” he said with a laugh. “This was a good outlet.” But forensics is more than just taking a position and arguing it, Lisman explained. While he’s participated in many forensic formats, Lisman prefers and excels at the very difficult extemporaneous speaking. “You’re given three questions to choose from and half an hour to prepare, and you have to do a seven minute speech.” With topics ranging from President Obama’s economic policy to will the prime minister of Thailand succeed in bringing stability to his country, it’s a challenging event. “I spend time every day going on line reading news magazines. If something is happening in the world, it could be a question.” Lisman prints and clips stories to take with him for reference at competitions. “I have two huge rolling file boxes that go with me. You clip every day and you hope you have what you need.” And yes, Lisman did have enough information on the Prime Minister of Thailand to argue that he would not be able to bring stability, and it just may have been his preparedness for that tough question that made him the Pennsylvania state forensics champion and advanced him to national competition for the second straight year.
Forensics takes up a lot of his time, but Lisman also expresses his passion for politics through Junior Wilkes-Barre City Council. “That gives me a chance to add more of a service component to politics,” he said. Through the junior council, Lisman helped coordinate a paper products drive. With the help of businesses that had overruns of paper products like toilet paper and paper towels, Lisman and the other junior council members provided paper products to charities and nonprofits. “It wasn’t a hard project to accomplish but it made a difference,” he said. “You wouldn’t think rolls of paper towels would be such a big deal but the response we got made it clear it made a difference to these groups,” he said.