Two years ago, a group of 60 teens and young adults were sworn in at the state house to serve on Governor Marua Healey's inaugural youth advisory council.
Back then, former CAI Morning Edition Host Patrick Flanary interviewed one of those teens—Falmouth Academy junior Maria Soares.
Now, Soares's two-year term is up. She's graduated from high school, started college and soon, she's off to Portugal for law school.
CAI's Gilda Geist caught up with Soares recently to learn more about her experience representing Cape Cod on the governor's youth council.
Gilda Geist What is the youth advisory council that you've been part of over the past two years?
Maria Soares The youth advisory council is a cohort of about 60 teenagers and adults from the ages of about 17 to 21 who applied and eventually got chosen to represent their counties or their communities at the state level in bringing voice to the youth issues to the governor, and try to resolve them. [We would] bring healthy discussions to the table, and potentially bring solutions to these issues. Every year was about two meetings in person at the state house. We had these roundtable discussions with many people from different areas, and we talked about different issues that our communities that were facing. At a certain point, each roundtable would present to the governor and to these different committees. So, we had three subcommittees. We had an education, we had a healthcare and we had a mental health subcommittee. And then throughout the year, we have many Zoom meetings with these different subcommittees. I was specifically on the education subcommittee.
GG How did your experience compare to your expectations?
MS Honestly, it was an awesome experience, not only because I get to represent my county of Barnstable, but also because I get to meet so many awesome people from around the state, and getting to go to the state house, seeing how beautiful it is, the people that work for the community, the governor, and having really healthy discussions about issues that affect our everyday lives. Any issue comes down to the youth issue because whether transportation, health care, housing crisis, it all affects all of us. Really having these discussions and seeing how the adults that are working for our community are able to resolve these issues is really important.
GG If someone from the governor's office was listening to this interview, what would you want them to know about your experience? And in particular, maybe things that you would recommend they change for the next cohort?
MS First of all, this is an amazing program just because you rarely see adults caring about the youth's opinion on things, especially such important things as law. This is also the first time they did a program like this, so I keep in mind that it's almost like a trial to see whether things work and don't work. But I would say that maybe for the next group, really have a much more linear path to, what is the goal? Okay, we're going to discuss things, but is anything actually going to be made out of these things?
GG So, at the time that you interviewed with my former colleague, he asked you if you were interested in going into politics, and at the time you had said maybe. How are you feeling about that now?
MS I'll be honest, I was very interested in politics. However, I think politics is not for me because I think I can do a lot more outside of politics than within politics just because there's so many limitations, [like] funding or how many people actually want [something] to get done. I think working with non-profits is the way to go just because if you want to do it, you can do it. If you want to help, you can help. It's a free thing to do. And of course, at a larger level, there needs to be funding. With politics, I think, especially in today's world, it's such a complicated thing. You know, as much as I would like to see better people in politics, I think the world of it is just not looking good. So, I'd like to stay out of it and do good work—you know, community service, anything to help the community outside of politics.
GG Anything else you want people to know about youth voices or your experience representing the Cape?
MS Listen more to the youth voices around you. When they say there's an issue, most likely there is an issue at hand and it's not just their issue, it's everyone's issue. And I think, really be active. If you have strong feelings about something, go for it. Be an activist. Especially these days, it's very important to be true to yourself and to what you believe is an issue and how to fix it.
The governor's office did not return CAI's request for information about the next governor's youth council.
