Seventeen local teens are vying for six open seats on the city’s all-volunteer Youth Commission, and on Sept. 22, the city council interviewed the first batch of candidates.
Council will interview a second group of candidates at the Oct. 20 meeting and the youth commissioners won’t be chosen until early November. And that means the city is looking to hear from more teens.
“The more we have, the better,” Mayor Don Gage said. “That means they’re invested in their own community.”
In groups of six, the applicants—all between 13 and 19 and many dressed in Sunday best—sat in front of a microphone at a table in front of the council and talked about why they want to serve Gilroy. The Youth Commission is a six-member body and commissioners serve two-year terms, serving as the conduit between youth and city officials.
It’s a popular commission, too. According to City Clerk Shawna Freels, the turnout by young people to step into a leadership role is consistently outstanding.
“It gives our elected officials so much insight to the needs and the ideas of that age group,” Freels added. “I think for the city, it really helps give us a broad look inside our community. For the kids, they learn a tremendous amount of leadership. They learn how to work with government officials and they grasp how to do a proposal and actually work towards a plan. It’s an opportunity for kids to take a leadership role in their own community and to truly make some differences.”
During the interviews, some prospective commissioners spoke of visions of establishing after-school mentoring programs and a club to teach kids musical instruments; others spoke of the need to deter youth from drugs and one young man detailed his dream of becoming the president of the United States.
“There are so many kids who have so much potential but don’t have the resources-the time or the money-to meet their goals,” said one applicant, a junior at Christopher High School who said she’d want to start a mentorship program at Solorsano Middle School. “We want to inspire them and show them what they need to be successful. I want to show them that they are smart and there are other ways to show them they can succeed. I really want to give these kids inspiration and hope that they can reach their goals and be successful.”
“I feel it’s very important to be a visionary-to not only see the importance of programs we have in place but to see how we can make them more efficient,” said another applicant, also a junior at CHS. “We need to work with teens on a peer-to-peer basis to give them motivation to not falter or shy away from opportunities.”
In between interviews, Gage remarked that the candidates were impressive.
“I think we’re going to have some difficult choices but I don’t want to see any of you give up,” Gage said, speaking directly to the teens. “You folks are already setting the bar very high. You’ve already started becoming leaders in this community.”
Any teens interested in applying can stop by Gilroy City Hall at 7351 Rosanna Street and pick up a paper application or visit cityofgilroy.org.
