Fox Chapel welcomes new junior council members

A handful of Fox Chapel teens will have a front row seat to observe how their hometown government works.

In an expansion of its junior council program, borough officials welcomed four new members on Sept. 15: Fox Chapel Area High School junior Aiden Drucker, Shady Side Academy juniors Anna Grace Shultz and Ahmed Elsayed and Shady Side Academy senior Laurence Park.

The students reached out to the borough individually and expressed interest in the program.

“One thing that particularly interests me is seeing how decisions on our local community are made,” said Laurence, 17. “Oftentimes, they are talking about things that might be done with parks and stuff like that.

“These are the same parks that I see all the time. I think it’s just interesting to see how the decisions that are influencing our community are being made behind the scenes.”

Councilman Brad Harrison, borough secretary Shawn Marie Peterson and borough manager Julie Bastianini were all involved in the screening process over the summer and unanimously recommended they be appointed.

“All students are very smart and talented individuals who will bring a wealth of knowledge and create student involvement in local government,” Peterson said before the meeting.

Harrison said it is vital for the borough to provide opportunities for young people to get involved in their community.

“Local government has the biggest impact on your day-to-day life,” he said. “To have a say in that is so vital. If you can imagine the trash not being collected for a week or two or the streets not being safe. I think that’s why they should get involved.”

The borough provided the new junior councilors with copies of the state borough code, information on the Sunshine Act, Robert’s Rules of Order and the Pennsylvania State Association of Borough’s Junior Council Program Guide to Borough Government.

Junior council members do not vote on issues brought before council and they cannot participate in executive sessions and closed-door discussions.

Students’ interests

Ahmed, Laurence and Anna are all part of the school’s speech and debate club, which has subcommittees tackling a host of issues, including government systems, philosophical ideas and conducting a mock Congress to debate legislation among other activities.

Ahmed and Laurence are co-presidents of the club.

“We do a lot of debating, but I haven’t had a first-hand experience like this,” Ahmed said after the council meeting. “Just to be able to see everything is really cool.”

Laurence said the speech and debate club really sparked their interest in local government and helped them want to find more opportunities like the junior council program.

The students believe their experience through the program will help them grow and do better with the club and life outside of school.

“I think it’s really interesting to see how local government works and see how local government is really the stepping stone to state government and federal government and how ordinary people can have a say in big decisions,” said Anna, 16, the academy’s French club founder.

“I hope to gain valuable insight into how local governments work and to see how decisions are made in the local sphere. We learn a lot about how governments work all across the world in our history courses. I think it’s really interesting to see how our government works versus other governments, especially in how we have local government. I think it’s very different in each country.”

Aiden, 17, is the vice president of his high school’s chapter of Future Business Leaders of America and co-president of Distributive Education Clubs of America as well as a mock trial officer.

“I’ve learned leadership skills, communication, learning how to have positive dialogue with people and that’s something I hope to learn from this program as well,” he said. “How local communities, which are the closest to the people, have positive and beneficial dialogue with each other that creates positive change.”

Aiden said he is excited to meet new people and work with students from another school. He hopes more of his school district peers will get involved with the borough.

“I think that the representation of Fox Chapel (Area High School) is lacking mainly due to just awareness of the program,” Aiden said. “I hope to raise awareness that there are opportunities to participate in local government. I plan to talk to my peers at my high school, as well as maybe through some action in a club, to get more involvement here. I’m super excited for this year being the only one from Fox Chapel (Area School District).”

The students said they currently do not have any aspirations to run for political office.

They plan to study law, advocacy or become diplomats or entrepreneurs.

Growing program

The borough has been steadily growing its junior council program.

Shady Side Academy students Avery Litwin and Ethan Kolek were appointed in 2023. They were juniors at the time.

Fellow Shady Side Academy student Kabeer Chopra joined them last year when he was a junior.

Kabeer, who runs the nonprofit Green Bridge412, collecting recyclable materials from residents and businesses, said he found his time as junior councilor very educational and is excited for another year with new members.

“I didn’t know how much went into how much the residents come up here and speak, and how much it takes to prepare for each meeting and each volunteer event,” Kabeer said of his first year. “It was only three members before, but I’m glad we have more people now.

“I think it’s widened my perspective of what goes on in the community. (I want) to show these guys what I’ve learned and maybe show them how it was done last year.”

The new appointments bring student participation to five, its largest group.

“We like to joke that the kids’ table is expanding like at a holiday meal,” Harrison said. “It’s just such a great program for the students. They provide great aspects of what’s happening in the community.

“They provide a good perspective from their eyes on what’s important in the community. Throughout the interview process, they were really engaging and it was cool to hear what they wanted to work on. … I feel like the program’s getting traction. We started small a few years ago. More and more interest is occurring each year.”

Peterson said she contacted the academy and high school in April to invite students to a local government round table discussion. Two students from the academy contacted her about a month after the event.

Harrison said he has had discussions with a Fox Chapel Area High School AP government teacher to help promote the program, and chalked up the lack of public school participation to geographic issues.

The high school is in O’Hara, while Shady Side Academy is located in the borough.

Harrison said he would be open to the idea of visiting the schools and having council members talk to students.