Zoe Eichorn

One day, people my age or younger are going to be the people in charge. They’re going to be the people running the government, running the city. So I think it’s important now for youth to gather an understanding of how the city works and to start being able to give good input. We don’t just have to come in later in life and decide things then. We can start giving input into our future now, as we’re growing up, on how our city’s going to be.

I was born at Goshen Hospital and I’ve been here for 17 years. I’m a senior at Goshen High School.

As a youth advisor, I’m a non-voting member of the Goshen City Council. I was voted in by my high school peers at the end of my junior year. The youth advisor position is non-partisan. We’re kind of just there to give the input of the youth of our community, to represent the youth of our community.

I’m the fourth. Jacob Biller was our first one, and then our second youth advisor was Jason Barahona. Our third was Felix Perez Diener.

I try my best to give input where I can during meetings. Sometimes I may not be the most knowledgeable on the topics that we’re discussing just because I’ve never had to deal with them before. But I’m learning a lot, and I’ve gone to many of the community discussions that the Community Relations Commission and Goshen Community Schools have been holding. That’s where I’ve been giving a lot of my input.

I think building a community and engaging with others is really important just to break down walls between different groups of people and to stop putting up so many barriers between different groups of people. Being more involved in your community and just kind of being a good civilian – you’re bringing people together in doing that. It’s creating a more diverse and accepting community, I think, when you’re more engaged. And you get to learn about the different people who live near you and with you.