2012 DREAM IT - DO IT
When you were a teenager, did anyone in local government ask you what you thought your city should be like in the future? Did anyone encourage you to dream big and voice your ideas?
Last week, students in grades 8 through 12 from all over Columbus were invited to attend Mayor Michael Coleman’s “Columbus Bicentennial Youth Forum” held here at Metro High School. The mayor’s Bicentennial Commission chose our first-year students to be the hosts, and with a bit of help from me, Mrs. Raymond and Mayor Coleman’s staff, they executed a flawless event.
The Youth Forum was a chance for Columbus teens to tell city leaders what they want for their community by the year 2012, which is Columbus’ bicentennial. “Our Voice – Our Future” was the tagline created by our students.
The Metro students met after school for weeks, planning everything: recruitment of participants, set-up and clean-up, media communications, event programming, decorations, the lunch menu and gift bags. We worked with the city schools to invite young people to bring to Metro their ideas and dreams for our city.
On the day of the event, our students registered more than 250 city youth, welcomed Mayor Michael Coleman, Dr. Gordon Gee, Abigail Wexner and Bishop Timothy Clarke. The students introduced the mayor, gave opening remarks and facilitated 30 break-out groups to generate ideas. Students even handled media relations. The adults were on hand in case of problems, but none were had.
In the end, the mayor, his staff and consultants could not say enough good words about the maturity and capability of our students. It was a wonderful opportunity to practice their leadership skills, and the visiting students were just as amazing. I think the future is in good hands.
First year student Jana greeting Youth Forum audience
First year student Elizabeth greets Mayor Michael Coleman
-- Posted November 9, 2007 --
Diana Wolterman is on a two-year special assignment to Metro High School, where she will play a key role in furthering the collaboration between the private sector and education, including special projects to connect Battelle staff with the activities in the school, assisting with tours and visits, developing and implementing new experience-based curriculum support, and helping to document the process of creating a new STEM-focused learning experience. Diana also will document Battelle’s successes and missteps at Metro to help the organization learn from the experience and make good decisions going forward at Metro and in other educational activities.