Senior says Yea to term as student representative

Angelique Flores

Annie Yea has a busy year planned for her upcoming term as the

Huntington Beach Union High School District student representative.

The 17-year-old senior from Edison High School will be the student

liaison between the district and its high schools. The Fountain Valley

girl will begin her duties in September, attending the district board

meetings and special meetings, as well as meeting with student

representatives from the schools.”It’s my senior year, and I wanted to

help out,” Yea said. “I wanted to do more community service and bring up

new ideas.”

Though she said she is eager to do her best to get student input and

present it to the board, Yea said she is nervous she might inadvertently

exclude someone’s opinions.

One of her goals is to promote a sense of community between the

schools by doing such things as organizing a districtwide community

service project to gather donations from local supermarkets for food. All

the schools in the district would meet at one of the schools to pack

lunches, which would then be donated to the needy.

“It would bring the community together,” she said.

Yea also has ideas to open the lines of communication between schools.

She hopes to establish a district newspaper that would be more detailed

than “Currents,” the district’s existing newsletter, and would include

information about events and people at the schools.

“It’ll give other schools ideas to try out and would make more

competition, but in a good way,” Yea said.

She also wants to work with the district to shatter negative

stereotypes of teenagers by presenting the positive actions of teens.

“People from high schools aren’t bad,” she said. “They’re trying to

help the community.”

The district’s selection committee -- which unanimously chose Yea --

was impressed with her presentation during her interview, during which

she charted a strategic plan on improving communication.

“Besides being well-organized, she was mature,” said John Myers,

assistant superintendent of educational services. “She’s someone who can

handle politically sensitive issues and seemed like she had the right

rapport with the adults on the board.”

Besides her work with the district, Yea has plenty of other activities

to keep her busy. She plays varsity tennis, the piano and is a member of

the Model United Nations. She is also her school’s commissioner of

community service.

Before she jumps into her school year activities, Yea is busy taking a

pre-calculus class at UC Irvine. She already spent the first part of

summer touring Spain, France and England. The rest of her time will be

split between volunteering at the Fountain Valley Library to help with

summer reading programs and in the pediatric department at Fountain

Valley Regional Hospital and Medical Center.

After high school, Yea said she wants to attend Georgetown University

in Washington, D.C., to study law, with a focus on international

relations.