While most incoming freshmen wait for classes to begin before getting involved on campus, Simon Boehme from Kalamazoo Central High School is looking to break the mold. Boehme, who has yet to register for his first class, has already begun campaigning this summer to get elected to the University’s Board of Regents.
Boehme said being elected this November would allow him to serve on the board for his entire four-year undergraduate career rather than just two if he waited to campaign for the next election as a junior.
To get his name on the ballot, Boehme said he and his team are trying to get the required 30,000 signatures through campaigning and his website — simonboehme.com — by the July 15 deadline. With only about 1,000 signatures acquired as of last Thursday, Boehme admitted that they probably won’t meet their goal.
According to Boehme, he and his campaign team tried to contact members of the Michigan Student Assembly for support but never got a response.
“There’s no real Ann Arbor support, which I wish there was,” he said.
Even if he doesn’t get on the board this November, Boehme said he is optimistic that he is at least making a statement.
“I’m really excited to go to the University of Michigan, and I have a lot to learn and I’m ready to learn and be involved and help make a difference and help to get a student on the Board of Regents, even if it isn’t me,” he said.
Boehme said the inspiration for this campaign came when, as the salutatorian for his senior class in high school, he had the honor of giving his graduation speech in front of President Barack Obama — the commencement speaker for KCHS this year.
In February, President Obama challenged high school students across the country to prove why their high schools represent “the best that our education system has to offer” and agreed to deliver the commencement address at the winning school.
Boehme said the KCHS principal Von Washington Jr. pulled him out of class one day to discuss the Race to the Top High School Commencement Challenge, asking him if he wanted to lead the project.
“I don’t tell my principal ‘no’,” Boehme said with a laugh.
The campaign began with the submission of many essays, Boehme said, and it ended with the making of a video called “We are the Giants” that the school sent off to the White House, earning them the win.
Boehme said he and his classmates received an overwhelming amount of media attention for winning the Commencement Challenge, adding that he had interviewed with the Associated Press, local news stations and the Epoch Times in China. MTV cameras, he said, also followed him around school for a day.
“I was there from the beginning,” he said, “and it was just something you will never forget.”
When he found out that KCHS had won the competition and that President Obama would be speaking at their graduation, Boehme said he decided to use his speech as an opportunity to tell the president about an idea he had to better connect the government with the youth of America.
The idea, Boehme said, was for President Obama to create an all-youth council that would give young Americans a much-needed voice in Washington. Boehme added that it was the same idea of connecting young Americans to governing leaders that led him to consider campaigning to become a University regent.
“If I want to be a leader, then I have to lead the way and I have to do this,” he said.
Boehme said he decided to lead a campaign to “bridge the gap between the Board of Regents and the students” at the University, noting that having someone who is always on campus and immersed in student life involved in the decision-making process would be “something really special.”
“I find it absolutely ridiculous that with so many bright people around Ann Arbor, there’s no (student) on the Board of Regents,” he said.
Boehme pointed to the student on the University of California at Berkeley’s Board of Regents, highlighting the student reaction to the tuition hikes in California as an example of why it’s important for students to have a voice on the board.
As someone who is technically not yet a University student, Boehme said he has encountered resistance from some people who believe he is too young to be on the board.
“People have actually not signed the petition because of that exact reason,” he said. “I don’t have all the experience that an upperclassman does, but I have the advantage of being the student voice.”
Boehme, who said he plans to study political science and possibly business, added that he wants to eventually pursue a career in politics.
“I don’t want to be a career politician or a crooked politician,” he said. “As cliché as it may sound, I just want to help people.”