State College Borough Council Approves State High Student Representative

State College Area High School now has an official student representative to State College Borough Council.

During its meeting on Monday, council unanimously approved adding a representative recommended by State High student government and appointed annually by council. The position joins two student representatives to council from Penn State’s University Park Undergraduate Association and Graduate and Professional Student Association.

State High junior Clarissa Theiss, who brought the proposal to Council President Jesse Barlow and Mayor Ron Filippelli last year, will serve as the high school’s first representative.

“I’m so excited not only to serve as a representative but to continue working to promote civic education at State College Area High School,” Theiss said.

The State High representative “not only advocates for the interests of youth but serves as a liaison to their peers for local elections and events to promote and encourage community involvement,” according to the resolution passed by council.

The representative will be a student who is a member of a registered student organization and concluding the end of their sophomore or junior year at the time of their appointment in May. They do not need to be a State College Borough resident.

Like the Penn State student representatives, the State High representative will have a seat at the staff table for council meetings, will be recognized during discussions of agenda items to provide comments or ask questions and may, if requested to do so, provide reports at the end of council meetings.

Theiss said during a discussion of the position at a council work session in January that most high school students are unable to vote, though in any given year one-half to one-third of the State High senior class is eligible to do so.

“A vast majority of my classmates have ideas that would meaningfully and positively impact the community,” Thiess said. “What’s become painfully obvious to me in recent years is that we simply lack the education and knowledge of local government to engage with the community.

“In creating this position not only would you ensure our voices and ideas are heard but you also would allow us to help you in continuing to shape State College into the thriving, welcoming and vibrant community we all want it to be.”

State High has two student representatives to the State College Area School Board and Barlow said school board president Amber Concepcion “had nothing but good things to say about doing this.”

Councilman Evan Myers said at the January work session that he supported the position to provide public input on behalf of the youth constituency and to inform students about issues affecting them.

“There’s no such thing as too much public input, especially when you’re dealing with people that are representative of others,” he said.

Councilwoman Deanna Behring said State High has impressive students who will bring valuable contributions to council’s work.

“State College high school students are amazing and they contribute so much to this community,” Behring said. “They’ve been a source of some of the most innovative work and projects in the community… they’re very very influential and I’m glad we’re considering recognizing State College high school students in this way.”

Borough resident and mayoral candidate echoed Behring’s comments during public comment of Monday’s meeting, saying the State High students he has worked with are “very incisive, very intelligent and have an incredibly true moral compass.

“This will benefit the students but really the big beneficiary of adding a high school student to council is the borough because they’re going to bring incredibly important perspective to us.”