Birmingham gives young people a voice on their boards

BIRMINGHAM — At the Birmingham City Commission meeting Feb. 12, the 2024 student board representatives to city Boards and committees were appointed.

Ella Bassett was appointed to the Parks and Recreation Board, Josie Carroll was appointed to the Ad Hoc Environmental Sustainability Committee, Will Clemans was appointed to the Ad Hoc Environmental Sustainability Committee, Jack Lassen was appointed to the Multi-Modal Transportation Board, Owen Reibscheid was appointed to the Multi-Modal Transportation Board, and Alexa Weinberg was appointed to the Public Arts Board.

Birmingham Planning Director Nicholas Dupuis said Birmingham is familiar with having student representatives on their boards. Usually, students’ involvement is self-guided, and they are invited to make comments wherever possible; however, they do not have voting powers. The main purpose of having student representatives is to provide a learning experience for them that they can take into their education and careers.

“It’s really great to have an access point into the schools to get some feedback or public participation from the youngsters,” Dupuis said.

Dupuis said this is a great opportunity to give back to young people in the community and help them towards whatever profession they plan to pursue.

Clemans is a junior at Cranbrook. He said he has always been interested in the environment, but his interest in sustainability was specifically developed with his involvement with the nonprofit Keep Growing Detroit, an urban farm that buys asphalt lots and turns them into local gardens to give to Detroit residents for free.

“When I saw the ad in the newspaper talking about an Environmental Sustainability Council for Birmingham, I was super interested because I was just researching how local government can affect the environmental sustainability of a small city, so I thought it would be perfect,” Clemans said.

Clemans said he is thinking about majoring in public policy or political science in college.

“I’m definitely super interested in going into this side of governance and policy,” Clemans said.

By searching for opportunities to become involved with throughout high school, Clemans has been able to learn and become inspired by his surroundings.

“Once you start going to places and seeing other people who are super passionate about projects, you really go down, like, a great rabbit hole,” Clemans said.

More information on the city’s boards and opportunities can be found at bhamgov.org.