Centerville city officials took a special moment during their April 21 meeting to celebrate the graduating seniors of the youth council and listen to what the city’s youngest leaders have learned over the past year. 

“I would like you to know that we have an amazing youth,” Community Services Manager and youth council liaison Haley Turner told the city council. “There is not a month that goes by in the year where they aren't involved in a project in the community.”

She praised their growth, saying it is “bittersweet” to see them move on to bigger and better places.

The presentation focused heavily on the lessons learned at a recent leadership conference held at Utah State University.

Youth council members Kate Mullins and Liv Jones spoke about the theme “United We Stand.” They explained that true leadership is about understanding the people you work with. 

“As a team, we recognize each other and our abilities, and we work as a team to make something great,” Liv said. 

They told the council that knowing how to utilize everyone’s individual strengths is a skill they will use in their future careers.

Another senior, Audrey Howell, admitted she originally thought the conference might be “same old, same old,” but she was surprised by how much she learned. 

“I was able to look at it with new eyes and look at some of the things I can learn and use for my future,” she said. “And one of those biggest things was the ability to network and easily make relationships with strangers, like people I’ve never met before that have different beliefs and different values than I do and being able to make connections that could last and help me in my future.”

Youth Mayor Cade Creamer thanked the city officials for their backing. He explained that having the support of the city during their “most formative years” helps prepare them to enter professional careers and become active, helpful citizens.

Two members of the youth council, Ian Lee and Evelyn Morton, gave a more detailed presentation on how to solve problems through “discourse” rather than just debating. They even led the city council through an exercise where the adults had to write down an opinion and then try to find reasonable evidence for the opposing side. Ian used the famous story of the five blind men and the elephant to make his point. In the story, each man touches a different part of the animal – like the trunk or the leg – and thinks he knows exactly what it is. Because they don’t talk to each other, they miss the full picture.

“If I go into a conversation and I say, ‘I am 100 percent right, I know all the facts. The other side is wrong and evil and dumb and I need to go prove it to them,’ and the other side also thinks that and when we go into this discussion, we will not have any productive results, no problems will be solved, no ideas are going to be shared and nothing’s going to be done effectively because of it,” he said.

He told the leaders that by engaging in respectful discussion, they can stand stronger and stay united.

The meeting concluded with a celebration of the seniors’ hard work. Mayor Clark Wilkinson then led a round of applause for the students and their parents, thanking the families for supporting the teens in their service to Centerville.