On October 4, 2017, Whitney Young hosted the first gubernatorial debate coordinated by high school students in the country. Jeremy Liskar ‘18 and Anna Domahidi ‘18 were the masterminds behind the historic event. The Beacon sat down with Domahidi to find out more about the process.

Q: What made you decide to coordinate a gubernatorial debate?

A: “We (Jeremy & I) wanted to do something that would engage the students in our school more within the political process. I wanted to do it because it had never been done before and by getting all of the candidates and having a successful debate, we would be able to show that young people are capable of getting involved in the political process and our voices matter.”

Q: How did you convince the candidates to participate?

A: “Jeremy and I first went to a campaign event for Ameya Pawar where we talked to him about our idea and he quickly agreed to participating. Afterwards, we went to a JB Pritzker campaign event and spoke to him, and he also agreed to participate. After we had two candidates, we sent emails to the rest and then had everyone else committed by the end of May.”

Q: What did you learn from this experience?

A: “One of our biggest challenges was being taken seriously by the campaigns because we are so young, so I learned a lot about how to try and bypass that and get adults who think you’re young and inexperienced to take you more seriously. I definitely gained more professional speaking skills.”

Q: Any other takeaways?

A: “I think the debate was a great event for showcasing youth voice. Young people’s thoughts and opinions often aren’t taken into consideration when making important decisions which has led to many young people just being apathetic towards politics. The whole purpose of this event was to reverse that and show that youth voice really matters and that we are capable of doing things like coordinating gubernatorial debates. I really hope that people who read this article and had a chance to see the debate feel empowered to get involved in politics and become civically engaged!”

Anna seems optimistic in her hopes for the school’s students. Hopefully, other students have been inspired by Domahidi and Liskar’s efforts and will host other, unique events for our school. This debate has helped make our students and politicians more aware of the youth’s role in politics. This debate surely served as a stepping stone for things to come.