Altona town council welcomed its newest member to the fold last week.
Azeb Kauenhofen, a Gr. 11 student at W.C. Miller Collegiate, joined council at its Nov. 24 meeting as the new youth representative.
“I knew about it because I had a friend in class two or three years ago do it,” Kauenhofen shared. “And I was like, ‘Oh, that sounds really cool. That sounds like fun.’”
It planted the seed in her mind so that when the position opened up this year she decided to throw her hat in the ring, and she’s thrilled to have been selected.
“I’m on student council and I love it, and this is pretty much the same thing, but for the town,” Kauenhofen said. She heads up her high school council’s social media accounts.
Her hope as youth rep is to better inform town council about what’s all going on at the high school.
“I want to talk more about kids and what’s going on at school,” she said, noting W.C. Miller has a lot going on when it comes to sports but “there’s tons of other things that go on at our school, especially in our music program, which I’m pretty involved in, and I think it’d be cool to bring light to that, as well as all the art and plays that go on.”
She’s also looking forward to learning more about how decisions are made at the municipal level, and to provide the youth perspective to council on matters that affect people of all ages in the community.
Politics has always been an interest of Kauenhofen’s.
“I’m a person who really loves hearing people’s opinions” and why they hold them, she said.
Kauenhofen’s very first meeting with council was already an eye-opening experience.
“I thought it was very cool … seeing what they all had to do. I did not know everything that they did,” she said. “And everyone there is super sweet and awesome.”
