Every spring, a student is elected to represent his or her peers on the MCPS Board of Education. This past spring, students voted and made Dahlia Huh the next Student Member of the Board, or SMOB.
Though students may be familiar with her name and policies, most only know her on the surface, so The Observer sat down with Huh to talk about her and her future plans.
What plans have you implemented so far?
“Since officially taking office in July, I’ve been a part of the Board’s launch of the Technology Plan that encompasses the rollout of the 40,000 Chromebooks to grades 3, 5 and 6, as well as those in high school social studies classes. The tablets and laptops will be slowly integrated into high schools, so don’t worry if you don’t see them at CHS yet!”
What future plans do hope to implement in the near future?
“In the coming months, I, along with many student advocacy organizations, will be working on gaining full SMOB voting rights from the state legislature. The bill will allow future SMOBs to have an actual vote on the budget, not just a voice. Secondly, I am working with the Student Advisory Council to create a scholarship and opportunities resource database that will allow MCPS students to reach that next level of education or explore their individual interests of becoming small business owners, pilots, EMT, authors or any other path they choose.”
What is schedule like now that you are SMOB?
“I spend many hours a week reading up on memos, looking up decisions by the state department, preparing for future Board meetings, attending other student advocacy group meetings and taking the information back to the Board, shooting emails, reading appeals, brushing up on policies that were made before my term, getting briefed on upcoming presentations and so forth.”
How can students contact you?
“The best way for students to contact me is to email me to [email protected]. Also, please follow my Twitter: @DahliaHuh and Facebook page, SMOB Dahlia Huh.”
What do you hope or envision MCPS to be like in the far future?
“In the future, I envision MCPS to be even more of a leader in education than it currently is. Already, MCPS has a progressive and proactive way of adapting education to best meet the needs of each up and coming generation. Standardized testing, although currently necessary, will hopefully play a much smaller role in determining a student’s achievements. I envision MCPS to be one of the first, if not the first, school systems to close the achievement gap.”
What advice can you give to MCPS students?
“The world has so much to offer to us, and we have so much to offer the world. If you’re an underclassmen, get involved. Join a team, club or volunteer. To juniors, start thinking about what your dreams are and what you can do to achieve it. To my fellow seniors, yes, less than 150 days until graduation. We need to ensure that we’ve met all our graduation requirements and decide whether we would like to go to a 4-year college, 2-year college or head straight into a career. As a senior myself, we should make the most of senior year and let our teachers know how much we appreciate them.”
What is the most interest thing you’ve done?
“Last summer, I decided to co-author a 350-page children’s adventure novel (Gilbert and the Scepter of Silence) with my older sister. The decision to write a book was spontaneous and once the ball got rolling, it was hard to stop writing. Sticking to the project all summer was an amazing experience, and it definitely was on interesting process.”
If you could redo high school, what would you change?
“I wouldn’t change a thing!”
