Nearly 160 area teenagers,
each nominated by their school or a member of the community, converged in West
Houston for the first West Houston Teen Leadership Summit. Student
representatives from each of Spring Branch ISD’s high schools attended, while
several SBISD trustees and Superintendent Duncan Klussmann participated in
sessions.
Hosted and organized by State
Rep. Jim Murphy, the summit gave the teenagers a chance to meet and interact
with close to forty of Houston’s top leaders in business, healthcare, education
and politics.
The first-of-its-kind summit
was held at the Norris Conference Centers in City Centre near I-10 and Beltway
8 and provided the student-leaders with a series of panels and policy workshops
on some of the most important issues facing Houston today.
A policy workshop on
transportation issues was moderated by Harris County Judge Ed Emmett, and a
workshop on health care issues was moderated by Chuck Stokes, COO of Memorial
Hermann Health Systems. An education policy workshop was run by
Superintendent Duncan Klussmann of Spring Branch ISD, and a workshop on quality
of life issues was run by Perri D’Armond, president of the West Houston
Association.
Murphy moderated the panel
discussion on business issues, and Harris County District Clerk Chris Daniel ran
the panel discussion on Houston politics that included state representatives
Sylvester Turner and Ana Hernandez; Paul Simpson, chairman of the Harris County
Republican Party; and Buffie Ingersoll, president and founder of Generation
Now.
A panel discussion on media
and communication issues was moderated by Sherry Fox, vice president of
communications at the Westchase District, and a discussion of philanthropy in
Houston was run by Jeannie Bollinger, president of the Houston West Chamber of
Commerce.
Among the teen leaders were
Kendall Lilly of Lamar High School and Ashlon Lusk of Bellaire High School.
Both are sophomores, and both came away with a better understanding of
West Houston.
“The adults did a great job — they
were very serious and treated us like real adults,” Kendall Lilly said.
Ashlon Lusk echoed that
sentiment: “There’s so much going on in Houston, from the oil and gas industry
to health care,” she said. “It was great opportunity to talk with people
who are already leaders in their field.”
The conference was the
brainchild of Murphy, who believes that in addition to math, science, reading
and writing, students also need to learn leadership skills.
“The teens at the summit are
already leaders in their own right,” said Murphy. “It was exciting to see them
engaging in conversation with the panelists and elected officials and asking
really good questions.”
The summit was sponsored by Norris Conference
Centers, ConocoPhillips, Phillips 66, Centerpoint, Houston West Chamber of
Commerce, Greenberg Traurig and Comcast. Some of the other leaders who
participated in the event were Spring Branch ISD Trustees Pam Goodson, Bob
Stevenson, Karen Peck and Katherine Dawson, Houston City Council Members Oliver
Pennington and Brenda Stardig, Hilshire Village Mayor Shannon Whiting, Hunters
Creek Mayor Bonnie McMillian, and Judge Michael Landrum.
