Laramie might be a college town, but a newly formed youth council aims to give younger students from all across town a say in their community.
The Laramie Youth Council is made up of students from Laramie Junior High, Laramie High School, Rock River High School, Whiting High School and Cathedral Home.
“We have a really broad representation,” Sam Farstad, the youth council’s coordinator, said. “We really have the full spectrum represented in our group.”
Hunter Day, a senior at Whiting High School, is one of the youth council’s 15 members.
“It’s a good way for the youth in Laramie to be involved in the city council,” she said. “It’s a good way to get the youth out of drugs and into activities.”
Day said she joined the youth council to better the town for people her age, who often feel left out in a town so focused on its college students. She said she was inspired to make the community more visually welcoming by her experiences growing up on military bases in Europe.
“If you were having a bad day, you could go outside and see flowers everywhere,” she said. “You didn’t feel like you were trapped in a town where all you could see is dry land for miles.”
Since City Councilor Joe Shumway and Farstad began planning for the youth council this winter, Farstad said they intended it to be a youth-led initiative.
“The student members are going to decide what they want to focus on, when they want to meet, how they want to spend money from their budget,” Farstad said. “We’ll let it grow and see what works and what doesn’t work and just try to keep making it better.”
Nine members of the new council had the chance to learn from another more established youth council during a trip to Cheyenne last week.
“The young men and women were very excited to go and see how another council did it,” Shumway said. “They were able to talk to them about what goal they were working on—things like underage drinking and drugs and bullying.”
The Laramie Youth Council will get to choose what projects it wants to take on and will be allowed to focus on whatever issues it feels matter to the youth of Laramie.
“We really want our youth members to step up and take a role in planning and putting this together,” Farstad said. “It will be more substantive for them if they come up with what they want to learn about.”
In addition to opportunities to make recommendations to the city council and receive scholarships, youth councilors will also gain experience working with local government.
Day said she hopes to be a trauma surgeon one day and that the council, while especially helpful for aspiring politicians, could also benefit her in her future career.
“It’s a good experience to be around people who are involved in government if you want to be involved in government as well,” Day said. “It’s a good way to learn how to interact with people, how to debate, how to come to a middle ground on an issue you might not see eye to eye on.”
The Laramie Youth Council is being funded by equal contributions from the city council, the county attorney’s office and money put forward by Councilor Klaus Hanson.
