The Near East Area Commission has a new commissioner: East High School student Anija Reedus.
Reedus is the first person to serve in the Near East Area Commission’s new young adult engagement seat. Columbus City Council is expected to confirm her appointment at their meeting Monday night.
Seventeen-year-old Reedus isn’t worried about adding one more thing to her busy schedule. She’s already a student ambassador and student council president at East High School, and the senior class speaker. She manages the boys’ basketball team’s social media and presents at school assemblies.
Now, she’s a Near East Side area commissioner.
“I'm really here to change the look on the youth, and I'm really here to show my peers that we can do this," Reedus said.
The Near East Area Commission, or NEAC, makes recommendations on projects for city officials and serves as a voice for the community.
NEAC has allowed people age 16 and older to run for commissioner for years, but it was only last year that the commission added a special seat focused on bolstering the voice of the area’s young people. The young adult engagement seat is an at-large seat available to anyone between the ages of 16 and 24 who lives in or attends school on the Near East Side.
Reedus said an East High School administrator encouraged her to seek an appointment to the commission. Commissioners are typically elected by members of the neighborhood, but because former Commissioner Kelton Waller recently stepped down, sitting commissioners were looking to fill the last year of an unexpired term.
It was a competitive appointment, and Reedus was up against an adult running for an at-large business seat.
“You know, we had a debate back and forth with my opponent, as I will say. And, you know, I just came on top," Reedus said.
Reedus said her main goal as commissioner is to get young people more interested in and involved in the Near East Side.
“I don't think our youth really see how many opportunities we really do truly have," Reedus said.
Former Near East Side Area Chair Kate Curry-Da-Souza, whose term ended Dec. 31, said Reedus recognized that young people don't always get the chance to give feedback.
"Commissioner Reedus was excited because she felt like she would be able to gather further information from students who attended her school and from other youth here on the Near East Side," Curry-Da-Souza said. "The Near East Side has excellent kids. And we just feel so lucky to have her be part of the commission."
Curry-Da-Souza said it’s important to have young voices at the table because many of the developments being built now in the neighborhood will stick around for years to come.
“So we want to really be thinking about what it is that we're doing, because it's not just for our lifetimes. It's for the people who are coming after us," Curry-Da-Souza said. "By having youth at the table, this is an opportunity for us to really ensure that they're having a part in that decision-making process.”
Curry-Da-Souza hopes the adult Near East Area commissioners can mentor the area’s youth.
“We expect the youth are going to also mentor some of us as commissioners, so it’s a pretty cool opportunity," she said.
As far as Curry-Da-Souza knows, Reedus is the only person in a youth seat on a Columbus-area commission. The South Side Area Commission has an at-large youth seat, but it currently sits vacant.
As for Reedus, she has big plans as a commissioner and in her personal life. After graduation this spring, she intends to to go college to study culinary arts and business management. One day she wants to open a restaurant or several.
“I might be the next Cameron Mitchell. You never know,” Reedus joked.
Reedus also has a message for her fellow students and young people all over Columbus: “Dream big. Don't let no opinion stop you when you walk into the room. That's your room. Don't doubt yourself.”
