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Six members of the Roan Scholars Leadership Program at East Tennessee State University find their roles in the establishment of a new youth council for Johnson City both educational and inspiring.

The high school sophomores and juniors making up the inaugural class of the Johnson City Junior Council (JC2), designed to give the youth of the city a voice with city leaders while learning about local government, just wrapped up a three-day camp. During Council Camp, the students interacted with and learned from Johnson City commissioners and city staff, as well as the Roan Scholars.

These members of the Roan’s Class of 2027 have been instrumental in nearly every step thus far in establishing JC2. They will serve as mentors to the JC2 members as they carry out their work on the council over the next year.

The partnership between the city and the Roan Program came about after a conversation between Roan Executive Director Scott Jeffress and City Manager Cathy Ball about initiatives that might benefit Johnson City while also providing Roan Scholars with leadership experience in a small team setting.

Keisha Shoun, public affairs director for Johnson City Communications and Marketing, soon visited the ETSU campus to pitch the idea to the Roan Scholars. Six first-year Roans expressed immediate interest and formed the team.

The students met regularly with Shoun to brainstorm and plan everything from conceptualization to start-up. They met with officials from other cities that had youth councils to learn what their programs were like and talked with local students to ask what they would like to see in a youth council.

The Roan Scholars presented their plan for JC2 to the City Commission in early May, and after it was approved, they worked with Shoun to put it in place and select the inaugural class of JC2 members.

“The Roan focuses on consistently challenging and empowering students to be their best and develop their leadership potential,” Jeffress said. “This partnership allows us to engage with the community, strengthen an already close relationship with the city, and model the value of community engagement for the students.

“We talked a lot last year about ETSU’s ‘Go Beyond’ theme and turning ideas into positive impact through intentional action. This JC2 initiative really exemplifies that concept.”

“We had various meetings with Keisha Shoun where we planned every aspect of what this program is going to look like – what the students are going to be doing,” said Shelby Koerten, a communication studies major from Sevierville.

She added that the team of Roan Scholars assigned different roles to themselves according to their strengths and interests. For instance, one focused on media and graphics, while others worked to create camp activities to educate the participating JC2 members on their duties for the coming year.

These Roan Scholars hope participation in JC2 gives council members a better knowledge of municipal government.

“I think Johnson City is such a lovely place to grow up,” said Nora Honeycutt of Johnson City, a Science Hill High School alumna now studying business management at ETSU.

Olivia Nothnagel, an elementary education major from Blountville, said the scholars want the JC2 participants to be ambassadors who will share what they learn through the program with their peers and classmates.

“Also, we hope that when they go to college or trade school and into whatever profession they choose, maybe they’ll come back to Johnson City because they’ve seen firsthand how great a place it is,” she said.

“This is a great opportunity for these students – these young adults – to grow their leadership and communication abilities,” added Reagan Sparks, a kinesiology and nutrition major from Mitchell County, North Carolina.

Eliza Smith said she is excited about the demographic and intellectual diversity of the JC2 membership and the variety of perspectives the students will bring to the table.

“I think it will be a really cool opportunity to see them come together and share – some are more analytical in their thinking, some are drawn more to STEM or the humanities,” said Smith, an accounting and political science major from Church Hill.

The Roan Scholars appreciate the growth they have experienced through this project thus far and hope it will have long-reaching effects.

“Putting together this council has educated us as much as we hope it will educate the students who are going to be a part of the council,” Koerten said. “It’s also given us the opportunity to put the leadership capabilities that we’ve learned through the Roan Scholars Program into action and actually create something tangible.”

“I’ve been further encouraged by the investment of the City Commission in wanting to hear from the youth,” Smith added. “I knew they made efforts in the past to reach out, but to see that they want to have an ongoing relationship with youth is inspiring.

“And through their interviews and applications, the youth themselves demonstrated a profound interest in our community and how they can serve as civic leaders, even at this stage in their lives.”

Maggie Martin, a political science major from Mitchell County, North Carolina, reflected on the Council Camp experience.

“It has been so amazing to not only interact with so many of the people who help make Johnson City great, but also to watch the council members get a hands-on experience with the city,” she said.

“The Roans brought an energy that took this project to the next level,” said Shoun. “Junior Council is a great example of what we can accomplish if we leverage the relationship between the city and ETSU.”