The Progressive Center of Texas

Community leaders speak their minds, inspire us, share their visions, and challenge our thinking.

FEATURED WRITER:

Mark Smith
Mark Smith is a Senior at the School of Government and Law Magnet at the Yvonne A. Ewell Townview Center. He is a youth activist, member of the Student World Assembly, and the End Poverty 2015 Millennium Campaign. In order to live up to our ideal of democracy we must include the silent youth.

We must include the silent youth.

Youth Power Event.

On Saturday, September 29, 2009, the Progressive Center hosted Youth Power's first event. Students were invited to ask questions and discuss what was on their minds with two sincere and concerned community leaders, local and state. Our speakers were Texas State Representative Carol Kent and 2008 Texas Voter Protection Coordinator Clay Jenkins.

In her first session Rep. Carol Kent has led the fight to ensure that we have better public schools, attract new jobs and businesses, improve air quality and make state university tuition and other costs more affordable.

She serves on four committees: Urban Affairs, Criminal Jurisprudence, Rules and Resolutions, and Federal Economic Stabilization Funding.

Mr. Clay Jenkins is President of Jenkins and Jenkins law firm and served as Texas Voter Protection Coordinator in the 2008 election. He is a businessman and civic leader who anticipates using his experience to tackle important concerns and issues in Dallas County as a County Judge.

During the Youth Power event we discussed four open topics:

1. How students can overcome failure, learn from mistakes and make positive results from them.

2. How elected officials can improve communication between the government and the youth.

3. How to get an official role for youth in the governing process, for example Texas Youth Board creation.

4. How to challenge and better prepare our students so we don't have to play the catch up game with foreign competitors.

Mr. Jenkins contributed a great deal to the discussion. He was very generous and understands that in today's time we need to value every one's viewpoint concerning the governing or political process. He suggested that in order to get an accurate amount of youth representation in the government, we must get 25 year old youth running for office as 25 year old elected officials are closer to the silent youth in respect to age. Mr. Jenkins highlighted the importance of youth surrounding themselves with like-minded positive people as well as seeking mentors from all aspects of their life such as school, church, family, and friends.

Rep. Kent focused on an important suggestion to youth who want to be heard. Rep. Kent suggested that we reach out to school boards and create a student advocacy group. While it may be difficult to create a position on a school board for students to have voting rights that does not mean we can not influence the boards with our perspective and impact on the District and State agencies.

Both Mr. Jenkins and Rep. Kent show interest in young people gathering together to make a positive difference in society. They both show interest in helping youth to get their voices heard. With that being said, if the youth took anything from this conversation, it is that they have people like Mr. Jenkins and even an elected official like Rep. Kent supporting them along the way.

I’m looking forward to more events.

Mark A. Smith II
senator12tx@gmail.com

CONTACT

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