July 12, 2018

by Jordan Tirico & Catherine Nicoli, Youth Council Co-Chairs, 2017-2018

As we both transition from one chapter of our lives into another filled with unknowns, we find it hard to separate who we are from who we have become as a result of the Youth Council.

Let’s face it―it’s easy to be a member of your community without the responsibility of knowledge. We joined the Youth Council our freshman year, unaware to the changes and spontaneous growth our innocent selves were to face. To be a member of the Youth Council is to carry a great privilege: the ability to examine the shortcomings of our community, while being able to do something about it. It’s rare, as high schoolers, to be given the power to make decisions impacting the daily lives of our peers.

The Youth Council is a special group. From our first meeting where we eat pizza and listen to bad jokes, to the last meeting where we allocate $90,000 in grants, every member has the space to integrate who they are to what they, and we as a council, do.

It’s impossible to encapsulate our gratitude in this short blog post. But summing it up in one sentence is a bit simpler. Being a member of the Youth Council has been the most transformative aspect of both of our high school experiences. To anyone thinking about joining the Youth Council, do it. In such a formative period in your life, some of the most permanent and profound changes happen without you fully realizing it. That’s the Youth Council for us: a group so ingrained into our values that only now that it’s over, can we see the impact it has truly had on who we are as individuals.

It’s a bittersweet goodbye to a most important part of our lives. We have so much love for the Youth Council, and we know that it will be just as life-changing for those who walk the same path.