Youth Panelist Ema Smith Speaks at MML Convention

During the last week of June the Maryland Municipal League (MML), a non-profit organization devoted to the promotion of all aspects of municipal administration, held its annual gathering in Ocean City. This year, besides the regular city government representatives from Greenbelt, a member from the Youth Advisory Committee (YAC) attended the conference as an invited speaker. Sixteen-year-old Ema Smith, a life-long Greenbelt resident and member of YAC was invited to participate in a panel entitled Getting Youth Involved in Public Service. Laura Furr, program manager of the Institute for Youth, Education and Families moderated the panel. The other two panelists were Brandon Paulin, mayor of Indian Head, who is the youngest mayor ever elected in the state and Timothy Male, council member of Takoma Park, the first city in the U.S. to set the minimum voting age for municipal elections at 16. All panelists gave an opening statement introducing themselves and explaining why they thought it is important to involve youth in civic activities and how to promote youth participation. After opening statements, there was a question and answer session moderated by Furr, with an extensive discussion by the audience, made up of representatives from many cities in Maryland. Smith’s opening statement and answers to various questions were outstanding and were delivered with poise and determination. Members of the audience were impressed by her performance and many participants expressed interest in setting up a YAC similar to the Greenbelt model. Having a YAC member invited as a speaker in the panel puts the City of Greenbelt in the forefront in the area of youth involvement in public service among the cities in Maryland. The YAC was created years ago and has up to seven members no older than 18 years at the time of appointment or reappointment. The YAC has one adult member (Patrick Gleason) and a city liaison (Alison Longworth), who provide necessary support. The committee is currently chaired by Sophie Bernheisel, with Jeremy Tuthill as vice-chair. Other current members include Julia Sharapi, Hunter Whaples, Fahmi Abadir and Honora Hammett. These young adults regularly volunteer their time and effort to make their community a better place and are all an inspiration not only to other people in our city but to other cities as well as it became evident in this year’s MML meeting. Once again, we have to say it: Greenbelt is Great!