By Sanjana Jain, Design Editor
“I planned my work and worked my plan” – Dr. Calvin Ball.
On Monday, February 13th, River Hill’s Young Democrats Club organized a ‘Chat and Chew’ session with current Howard County Executive Calvin Ball. The club intended the meeting to be an informal and interactive session between the County Executive and students, and hoped that overall this would help students feel more connected to their elected officials.
“Being a Howard County Executive, we think, is a very unique position,” said one of Young Democrats’ co-presidents, junior Lily Ulman. “We know that [Dr. Ball] as a person loves being able to interact and meet students, and so we thought that it would be a win-win for everyone,” she explained.
The first part of Dr. Ball’s speech was geared towards providing an insight into his educational and professional background. He explained how his initial focus of being a lawyer transformed after interacting with elected officials in Howard County government and the Maryland General Assembly; they initially had suggested that he run for County Council. The last 20 minutes of the meeting were dedicated to questions, and there were no limitations on what students could ask.
“We had a plan B, if he got off-track or if no one had any questions – we had a set of questions ready to ask him. But, he pretty much ran with it, which was great,” said Lily Ulman.
Convincing our County Executive to come give a speech to eager young minds wasn’t difficult due to his nature, but the club’s officer team’s and sponsor’s extensive network certainly helped. “I think that having Mrs. Nichols as an elected official was the most influential thing we could have,” said co-president, junior Justin Kim. “She has a really wide network of elected officials and she has a lot of connections that she can bring to the club.”
River Hill’s economics teacher Mrs. Nichols is an elected member of the Howard County Democratic Central Committee. She was elected in 2022, and after familiarizing herself with the committee members and forming relationships with them, she quickly realized that “they have a heart for young people.” She questioned how she could “use this position that I have to help our students at River Hill to be able to link and to be able to learn from these amazing humans that really do like you all,” she said.
Justin explained that Mrs. Nichols regularly receives “multiple emails and texts from elected officials because really they want to reach out to kids,” which is an advantage for the club if they’re looking to bring in guest speakers or participate in campaign events during election season.
Mrs. Nichols prioritizes understanding a candidate’s campaign, motivations, and true personality before deciding whether or not to support them. “You know, I’m not someone who’s just blindly going to say, ‘I’m going to stand for somebody,’ no,” she said. “I need to know who you are, what you’re about, and I need to talk to you and ask questions.”
She often participates in campaign work, and “this past year, I knocked personally on over 2,500 doors by myself for amazing elected officials. Through that, I really got to know their heart,” she said.
However, The club presidents were still worried about how successful this event would be, considering that Young Dems has been inactive for the past year, and the fact that it’s solely a political club. “Talking about politics at a high school club, people are very sensitive to that topic,” explained Justin.
There’s always a risk regarding the reaction to the topics being discussed; it is impossible to gauge how someone might feel about a specific political aspect without prior discussion, a fact that the club’s officers are well aware of.
Dr. Ball’s character was essential to the club choosing him as their guest speaker, partially for the guaranteed student interest that they would receive. “If he wasn’t a person that was personable, we definitely wouldn’t have thought we would get attraction or thought it would be worth our time,” said Lily Ulman. “We definitely think that Calvin Ball’s perspective and ideas are unique and inspiring for the students of River Hill to understand.”
Co-president, senior Lily Shangloo, provided an important alternative perspective: “It’s hard to draw people in because they say ‘Oh, I don’t want to get involved in politics at school – I don’t want to mix the two,’ but what message we’re really trying to give is the fact that even if you’re not a Democrat, just meeting the elected officials, getting to learn from your leaders, talking to people who have the ability to fix important issues, that’s what really helps you grow as a student and as a member of your community.”
She continued to explain how “outreach, I think, is really important,” for attracting students to these events. The club began advertising weeks prior by setting up a hawk-talk announcement and pasting posters around the school. “I thought that the turnout was great, specifically for a club that people are very reluctant to join,” expressed Justin.
Another aspect of Dr. Ball that the presidents highlighted was his transformation that they saw after he became a leader. “I remember how he talked about how all leaders have a gleam in their eye when they become a leader,” said Lily Shangloo, “and I definitely saw that in him when he was talking and explaining his experiences,” she confirmed.