AUSTIN –Eastside Memorial Early College High School Nataly Martinez recently visited Washington D.C. as a delegate for the National League of Cities (NLC) Conference. The trip occurred in early March 2020 prior to Spring Break. Martinez was part of the teen contingent, representing the Austin Youth Council. NLC is dedicated to helping cities by building partnerships with its community members. The inclusion and use of youth voice is an integral part of improving all components and aspects of many municipalities across the U.S.
Martinez, an 11th grade student at Eastside, is the elected representative for District 3; which means she meets with Councilman Sabino Renteria and his staff to bring issues that relate to teens and youth in the district. Most recently, she attended the NLC conference in San Antonio, Texas where she met with Presidential Candidate and former Housing Urban Development (HUD) secretary Julian Castro. She is enrolled in the early college program at the Eastside campus and is on schedule to receive her Associate’s degree upon graduation in May 2021. Her goals after high school are to major in Political Science or Healthcare to pursue a career as a General Surgeon. She is enrolled in Health Science classes at Eastside as well.
Martinez explained her desire to join the Youth Council was to learn more about her community and to get involved in decision making processes that affect teenagers such as herself.
The Austin Youth Council was formed in 2011 by former Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell and city council members by way of resolution. According to the records, the Youth Council was created to get youth more formally involved in civic engagement.
The city of Austin website explained the council is formed as a representative general assembly with elected officials to lead each of the districts within city and county boundaries. The students who make up the council maybe from AISD, RRISD, DVISD, LISD, PfISD, Charter Schools, Private Schools and Parochial Schools in the Austin area.
The Youth Council meets monthly and meetings are held at times in the City of Austin council chambers and other times in other city municipal locations. Students discuss topics ranging from city budgeting for city parks, teen homelessness and food pantry distributions. During the meetings, the students hear from other officials such as police and city planners.
EMHS has had representation on the council since the 2015-2016 school years. The campus sponsor is Dr. Sanford Jeames; coordinator of the health science program.
