Local Students, Officials Discuss Public Advocacy

Mark Svensson of Pearl River and Marvin Mathew of Spring Valley began teaming up when both attended Rockland Community College.

Svensson is now at Georgetown University and Mathew will move on to the University of Maryland in two weeks, but they are still working together.

They returned to RCC as their latest effort came to fruition with what they called Rockland County's First Public Advocacy Roundtable Discussion Thursday in the president's conference room in Brucker Hall.

They call it the first because they plan to continue the discussions, which bring together policy makers and students to exchange ideas and make plans.

"We are coming up with ideas of ways we can come back to Rockland and make a difference in our community," Svensson said. "Marvin and I thought it would be a great idea to hold a round table here in Rockland. We felt what better place to hold it than here at RCC, which is a melting pot of young leaders.

"The idea of being here today is to have a nice conversation about ways that we as individuals can continue to engage individuals throughout Rockland."

"The idea was to bring people from all sections of the community and to give them a voice at one table so that public offi ials could hear what we have to say and we could hear what you want us to do to enact change."

The students were a mix of college upperclassmen and recent high school graduates. They included:

• Mark Svensson, Georgetown University 2012: Orangeburg
• Robert Chapklin, Georgetown University 2012: West Nyack
• Angel Torres, SUNY Rockland Community College 2012: Haverstraw
• Marvin Mathew, University of Maryland 2013: Spring Valley
• Esteban Gulijarro Harvard University 2015: New City
• Zarah Ahmed, Princeton University 2015: Nyack
• Carlos Ortiz, University of Rutgers 2015: Pomona
• Neil Francis, James Madison University 2015: Pearl River

RCC President Cliff L. Wood took part in the meeting, pointing to the importance of student involvement in their communities.

"Students may not have money, but they have time," Wood said.

State Senator David Carlucci (D-New City) and Chairwoman Harriet Cornell of the Rockland County Legislature also joined the panel, with Orangetown Town Council Candidate Elijah Reichlin-Melnick representing U.S. Congressman Eliot Engel.

"I think this is a great idea to just put our heads together and listen to some concerns and work on strategies moving forward," Carlucci said.

"We are in challenging economic times. There’s no question. I think there is an opportunity in that. I think the public and legislators are more wiling to try out of the box solutions to deal with some of the problems that face us. The way I get ideas is to talk to as many citizens as possible."

Cornell offered to help the group reach people necessary to aid in their projects. Reichlin-Melnick read a statement from Engel about the importance of such gatherings.

"The first and most famous round table, in King Arthur’s court, was meant to show that all the knights were equal. Today, you are again meeting as equals to share your ideas."

The students each came prepared with a suggested plan of action, focusing primarily on improving education and community involvement among young people in Rockland County.

Svensson and Mathew spoke of an Uplift program, which involves college students sharing stories with high school students to help motivate them to succeed academically.

They also talked of bringing the round-table discussions to local high schools, focusing on places with lower graduation rates such as East Ramapo where they felt they could do more good.

"That's my next step, to go into the schools," Mathew said.

"I have a scholarship with my name at RCC now and one at Pearl River High School," Svensson said. "I will open up a new scholarship in the East Ramapo School District to encourage young people to be leaders and to reward those who push themselves and become engaged in civic activity."

Chapklin's focus was on helping high school students with college admissions, specifically providing information about how the process works to help them better represent themselves to their schools of choice.

"Just getting into college is itself is making you a role model," Chapkli said. "Not making you an idol, but it gives you a very important experience to talk of. I want to put together a brochure or pamphlet. Every colleges weights different criteria on who they are accepting and why. That’s something a lot of people don’t know when they are going through the process."

Ahmed, who was born in Saudi Arabia, told how she had to attend Kindergarten twice as she learned English. The Nyack High School graduate is set to begin studying at Princeton University in the fall. She spoke of her concerns for fellow students not challenging themselves.

"It’s sad to see a lot of the other minorities stepping up," Ahmed said. "I found myself being the only black person in all of my AP classes. Why aren’t they feeling encouraged to go (into tougher classes)? A lot of these same people aren’t even applying to college.  What are you guys going to do with the rest of your life? How can we encourage them?"

Community Involvement

The group also focused on the importance of volunteerism. Francis pointed out that one issue is young people simply not realizing the needs of people in their communities or nearby.

"It would teach kids the lessons that there are things beyond their communities that need assistance and teach them at a young age that people need help," Francis said.

"At Pearl River, we do have the highest rate of graduation in the county, but it wasn’t until I came to RCC that (I learned about) issues outside of getting highest scores on Regents and standardized tests that I became aware of world issues and issues that probably don’t affect us in Pearl River and Orangeburg," Svensson said.

Healthy Bodies, Minds

Svensson and Guijarro both spoke of health issues. Svensson said he is working to organize a field day to promote exercise for young people in Rockland County this fall.

Guijarro's focus was more on making changes in some local schools, particularly in the area of sex education.

"I want to introduce comprehensive sex education to various county high schools, particularly Nanuet, Pearl River and Suffern," Guijarro said. "Those are the three that abstain from comprehensive sexual education.

"At this point, abstinence-only education is moot. It's not effective and not applicable to most teens."

To hear more of the ideas raised by the speakers at Thursday's roundtable, check out the videos attached to this article.