Former Porterville student on Nickelodeon

Fernando Perez, a 15-year-old student at Foothill High School in Bakersfield who was raised in Porterville, was one of a handful of students who got to pick the next president of the United States Monday night.

Every four years, Nickelodeon provides kids with the rare opportunity to have the U.S. presidential candidates answer their questions in the Nick News with Linda Ellerbee special, “Kids Pick the President: The Candidates.”

The show premiered Monday.

Following the special, kids have the opportunity to vote for the man they think should be the next president. The “Kids’ Vote” is a bellwether poll because in five of the last six presidential elections, kids have correctly picked the winner several weeks before the adults have voted.

Perez, who lived in Porterville until December of 2011, was one of the students selected by Nickelodeon to participate in this once in a lifetime event.

He is the nephew of Connie Perez, an Audit Partner with Brown Armstrong who works out of the Pasadena office. Perez was raised in Porterville. She also serves as treasurer for California Hispanic Chambers of Commerce and is a State Commissioner with the California Lottery Commission.

According to Connie Perez, he was participating in the Youth Empowered Action (YEA) Summer Camp in Northern California, when Nickelodeon selected the camp to participate in this election year special. Camp YEA leaders asked campers, who were interested in participating, to submit a question. Fernando Perez submitted a question. Nickelodeon reviewed all of the questions and determined that Fernando’s was one they wanted to use, so three weeks ago they flew a team from New York to Bakersfield to scout locations and interview Fernando.

Nick News traveled around the country videotaping kids asking the candidates questions.

This year’s special features President Barack Obama who sat down with Nick News at the White House to answer kids’ questions. After numerous attempts by Nick News to get former Governor Mitt Romney to participate in the special, his camp declined saying he was unable to fit it into his schedule. The special features previously taped video clips of Romney addressing some of the issues raised in the questions as well as bios of both candidates.

Following the special, kids will be able to vote for the person they think is most qualified to lead America. Kids can log on to www.nick.com/kpp from Oct. 15 to Oct. 22 to cast their votes online, and get more information about each candidate and his position on the issues.

Nickelodeon will announce the results on-air on Monday, Oct. 22. Both the special and the “Kids’ Vote” are the culmination of Nickelodeon’s Kids Pick the President initiative to build young citizens’ awareness of the election process, the candidates and the issues.