Rogers Mayor's Youth Council Seeks Students For Program

ROGERS -- Rogers Mayor's Youth Council will give 10 high school students an opportunity to get a first-hand look at local government and how it functions.

"When I was in high school, we had Student Government Day. Students could elect their peers to shadow the mayor or other city department head," said Mayor Greg Hines. "I was elected mayor for a day and shadowed John Sampier when he was mayor. I got to run a City Council meeting, and I learned how our local government worked."

At A Glance

Youth Council

The Rogers Mayor’s Youth Council is a new leadership program available to high school juniors.

• Applications are being accepted through Sept. 4.

• The program is open to juniors in Rogers, including home-school students. Students who attend a high school outside the city, but are city residents, are eligible to participate.

• The three page application form are available at participating high schools, or can be picked up at the mayor’s office in City Hall, 301 W. Chestnut St.

• The program will be one day a month from September through May, with the exception of October which will be a two day program.

Source: Staff Report

The Youth Council program is for juniors and an expanded version of Student Government Day. The program will last from September to May. Each monthly session will feature a different topic. These include attending a design workshop on the downtown plan where students can contribute suggestions; working with the Police Department to solve a mock crime; visiting the Fire Department; and working on the city budget, according to the schedule.

"The students will have the opportunity in May to preside over a council meeting, attend committee meetings and receive a certificate of completion and a letter from me that might be helpful when applying to a college," Hines said.

The idea behind the Youth Council is to give students the opportunity to learn how and why city government functions as it does.

"My hope is these students will become more civic-minded. It's a way to develop the future leaders of our city and have a better educated voter," Hines said.

Hines said he thinks it will take a couple of years to get students interested in participating in the program.

"There are a lot of leadership programs available to high school students. This program will help students to become leaders, but it will also help them discover the local government, and maybe inspire the students to run for office as an adult," Hines said.

Carrie Anderson, Hines' administrative assistant, has been working on the program for several months.

"Carrie has done the majority of work on this program. This program wouldn't have started this year without her help," Hines said.

"The last day we can accept applications is Sept. 4," Anderson said.

Brig Caldwell, student relations coordinator for Heritage High School, said he had a couple of students express interest in the Youth Council.

"The Youth Council is civics-oriented. It's all about the city government. I think it will attract students who are interested government," Caldwell said.

He said other student leadership programs have been in existence for several years.

"We have a leadership program, Link Crew, on campus. We had so much interest in our program we had to turn down 140 students who wanted to participate," Caldwell said. The First Leadership program sponsored by Arvest through the Rogers-Lowell Area Chamber of Commerce is another good leadership program, he said.

"There seems to be so much interest in leadership program it is good to see another program beginning. This will give more students the opportunity to develop leadership skills that can serve them the rest of their lives," Caldwell said.

NW News on 08/26/2014

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